Band: Triclops!
Album Name: Cafeteria Brutalia
Best Element: Extremely unique sound
Genre: Surf rock/Psychedelic/noise rock
Website: http://triclopsband.com/
Label: Sickroom Records
Band E-mail: info@triclopsband.com
Where to begin, and what can be said about the album, Cafeteria Brutalia?
Let me start with the basics: The band is called Triclops!. They are a San Francisco 4-piece, and they were formed in late 2004 from the ashes of such Bay area bands as Bottles and Skulls, Victim’s Family, Fleshies and Lower Forty-Eight.
That was the easy part! The difficult part now lies within explaining their music… All I know is for the last 25 minutes my aural senses were violated, defiled and debauched to extremes seldom spoke about but always enjoyed; kind of like the feeling of waking up after a week long binge on LSD and Mexican beer with no specific memories of what happened but knowing that you had one hell of a time.
Triclops! is a band which is not easy to dissect, and they are the first to admit they try to make music as uncomfortable as possible for themselves and others. Sounds come at you like darts from every direction at every conceivable speed and time. The guitar playing of Christian Beaulieu is a collage of sonic extremes, playing everything from surf rock to atmospheric dissonance in complete union with the drumming of Phil Becker. This duo is rounded out with the addition of Larry Boothroyd whose bass lines vary from self-sustaining open notes to spastic, driving rhythms. The last piece of this incredibly unique puzzle is John Geek whose vocal work deserves special mention. Drawing from influences that range from the likes of Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) to Mike Patton (Faith No More), he competitively holds up his end of the ‘unique/crazy’ contract that would likely be required to play in this band.
Of the four songs I’d have to say the opener “Mi Plisboy” is my favorite track, beginning with rock and roll thunder ala surf rock style and plunging into the depths of space rock for the latter half of the song. The second song “Jewel of Oakland” is a juxtaposition of aggression and circus insanity. The EP’s heavy hitter comes on track three, as “Bug Bomb” is a ten minute song which visits every conceivable realm of the entity known as Triclops! At over ten minutes long the song meanders here and there but eventually ends even stronger than it started. “Salton” is the album’s shortest song and being a bit more streamlined then the other tracks it serves it purpose as the closer to Cafeteria Brutalia
Ultimately the music heard on this disk is aural equivalent of trying to dissect the meaning of life on a head full of narcotics. Yet, at the end of the 25 minutes all I could say was, “Please sir, may I have another?” And I did, over and over and over again. In fact, four straight listens and after all of this I still want another fix. Triclops! is a band worth watching…and most certainly deserves your attention.
-Josh Hogan
josh@orchidscurse.com