!Listen!, 5/1/11: Synth Punk Threeway

The underground music scene of the 1990s yielded scores of sub-genre creating bands, one of which was the "synth-punk" movement of post-hardcore, which was characterized by the use of synths and keyboards in conjunction with (or sometimes, independent of) conventional guitar-bass-drums archetypes of punk. If you want to know what Devo cross-pollinated with Black Flag sounds like, here are three albums that I think are fairly representative of the genre.

Brainiac-Bonsai Superstar (Grass/BGM, 1994)

Bonsai Superstar is the second album by Dayton, OH based synthpunk band Brainiac. This album represents a transition point in Brainiac's sound, as later projects like Hissing Prigs in Static Couture and Electroshock For President would turn progressively stranger and more synth heavy, but on Superstar their sound remains guitar centric and their song structures are somewhat more conventional than those later works. The best moments on Superstar come when vocalist and Moog abuser Tim Taylor and guitarist Jon Schmersal spiral off into weirdness and experimentation while Brainiac's awesome rhythm section maintain the low end with metronome precision behind them. Taylor's range and use of effects on his vocals add an interesting dimension to the music, especially when his singing or screaming meshes with the bizarre noises coming out of his Mini-Moog Voyager to create a complimentary wall of noise that sounds like a new kind of instrument. Check out Radio Apeshot and To The Baby Counter on Youtube and the band's wiki page if you want to learn more.

Six Finger Satellite-Severe Exposure (Sub Pop, 1995)

Six Finger Satellite formed in Providence, RI in the early 90s, and famously toured with landmark post-hardcore acts like The Jesus Lizard and Shellac. James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem was the band's live soundman, and the soundsystem that he fed 6FS through which he nicknamed Death From Above would later inspire the name of Murphy's DFA Records label. Like Brainiac, 6FS's later albums tilted away from guitar rock and towards a purely synthetic sound, but their early albums, Severe Exposure in particular, showcase an aggressive and almost-but-not-quite dance friendly fusion of hardcore and electronic music. Guitarist Jon McClean's work on this album is particularly excellent, and the moments where his tone finds the midpoint between abrasion and melody are not to be missed. Drummer Rick Pelletier's brutal style of play suggests that he's not very concerned with the cost of new drum heads, and his machine gun quick fills bridge the gaps between McClean's guitar freakouts perfectly. Check out the songs Parlour Games and Rabies on Youtube for a good cross-section of the album, and the band's wiki.

The VSS-Nervous Circuits (Honey Bear Records, 1997)

The VSS formed later than Brainiac and Six Finger Satellite, and their approach to synth-punk is more aggressive and less melodic than those bands. On their earlier albums, The VSS used synth sporadically, usually as a compliment to their guitar sound or for minor textural passages and background sound rather than as another main instrument. On Nervous Circuits, their second full length LP, the synth comes out of the background and takes a more prominent role, and the result is a more distinctive and recognizable sound than that early material. If you've always wondered what Fugazi would sound like with a keyboardist, look this album up. Vocalist Sonny Kay sounds an awful lot like Guy Picciotto, and guitarist Josh Hughes's single guitar attack strains to amalgamate Picciotto and Ian MacKaye's plucking and riffing. Here's Lunar Weight on Youtube and the band's wiki if you're intrigued.