REINO ERMITAñO
Rituales Interiores
(I Hate)

HARVEY MILK
Life...The Best Game in Town
(Hydra Head)

CAPILLARY ACTION
So Embarrassing
(Pangaea)

STALINGRAD
S/T
(Self-Released)

SLOW HORSE
Rusher
(Sophomore Lounge)

MAR DE GRISES
Raining the Waterhearts

(Firebox)

BIGELF
Cheat the Gallows 

(Custard)

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Does the world really need another Mr. Bungle? I say, why not? If we can all enjoy the music of about 2,900 Pantera copycats, 2,378 Converge imitators, and about half a million Black Sabbath impostors, why the fuck not? We can all use bands that sound a hell of a lot like another band. Especially if it’s a band we haven’t heard from in a long looong while. Plus, haven’t you heard Mr. Bungle’s California?  It was rather lackluster, embellished in all this linear train of thought and somewhat plain musicality, which frankly, left us all fans of fucked up music hungrier than a starving male orangutan.  So yeah, why not? Now, this mish mash of divergent styles has been tried before. It didn’t die with Patton & Company’s inspiring Disco Volante? But truth be told, it hasn’t been played with this much panache since.

I will throw away the ‘experimental’ tag because it doesn’t say anything. I could be banging a pen on the top of your head and tag myself an experimental musician. But if you know what Mr. Bungle did in Disco Volante you can get a pretty decent idea of what Seattle’s Capillary Action are doing. And they are doing it damn well. It’s clear that these are cultured people playing freely in an open field of radical melodies and savant fuckery. There is your metal, which is usually played with much dexterity, plenty of stop starts and enough technique to leave a math metal band weeping like pussies. It’s true, Capillary Action almost spend the whole album informing us that they can play their instruments, that they can create these notes and transform them into a genre that’s almost all their own. But mostly Mr. Bungle’s.

Plenty of time is spent dishing out the jazz, but is mostly never straight forward. There is something else always going on, throwing a curve ball in the form of a distorted guitar or the voice of Jonathan Pfeffer, whose average Joe throat delivers (dude has the same exact timbre of Argentinean star Fito Paez, if anyone cares to dig that one up) his lines strictly according to the melody of the moment. Even a few seconds of Brazil’s take on the genre bossa nova are inserted here and there.  It’s impressive work for sure.

So Embarrassing must have been an ambitious project to complete. Cool stuff. Personally, I am impressed. Rarely do you find this much talent in a city. Let alone a gang of three. I just kinda wish there was more of a hook to the material. I wish there was more linear songwriting and even a bit of plain musicality. I know, that would defeat the purpose, but that’s just what I wish.   I am a sucker for hooks, and So Embarrassing avoids them at all costs..

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