Music Reviews

Tweezer

How to Live in a Day of Moral Chaos

Shoestring

Angst + Atlanta = Tweezer!? Their new CD captures the savagery one encounters when living in “Hot”-Lanta pretty well, I think. Having seen and heard Tweezer live before, I know them for creating a punkish, too-loud, scabrous sound-attack on reality. I kind of like it for that, but Ho_w to Live in a Day of Moral Chaos_ also features subdued moments: subdued like a crouching panther!

A very physical outfit, Tweezer’s music cycles between moments of quiet tension and minutes of aggressive vocal/instrumental assault. Timmy Smith, intoning some shamanic-action at your hide and then, all of a sudden, there’s the elemental pronouncement and this white noise propelled by some nuclear guitar blasts, all with undercurrents of hidden harmonics. There’s raga-styled stuff here (because the music is pretty deep, dark, etc., etc.), some western twang (of sorts), and more than a hint of scrappy thrash/bombast too. All that stuff – this CD does my head right, I like to listen to this VERY loud, and I want to get me a bottle of Mad-Dog 20/20, some Whip-Its, and a bag of cow-patty surprise. Or rather than that, I’ll run out of my house into the streets, into the woods, screaming and naked.

Bear in mind, these are things only someone like me would endorse, so you’ll have to come to your own conclusions.

We’ve got something that’s street level in philosophy here too, because that’s what I get from this CD. It’s an aggressive attack at a world spiraling into the greatest mass stupidity possible. Take a listen and arrange your own theater of triumphal and righteous anger.

Oh, and you’ll get a kick from dead Sartre reading the lyrics: they range from a histrionic verbal attack on pop culture, to the surreal, to existential decay, as only we who live in the usually steaming South can know and love/hate. What? There’s this thing, there’s this one thing, where Smith is saying, “I’m walking down the street, and there’s my big old head on a pole, right underneath my feet, my big old face I’m tripping man,.”

Indeed. You need a depth charge, get this CD, now! ShoeString Records, P.O. Box 8952, Atlanta, GA 31106-0952


Recently on Ink 19...

Alice, Sweet Alice

Alice, Sweet Alice

Screen Reviews

Alfred Sole’s Alice, Sweet Alice is a very Generation X movie, mirroring our 1970s lives in important and disturbing ways. Phil Bailey reviews the new 4K UHD version.

Garage Sale Vinyl: The Bee Gees

Garage Sale Vinyl: The Bee Gees

Garage Sale Vinyl

In 1977, Here at Last… Bee Gees …Live cemented the Bee Gees’ budding reputation as world-class master songsmiths. 46 years later, longtime Ink 19 writer Christopher Long nabs a well-loved $6 vinyl copy at a Florida flea market — replacing his long-loved and lost-to-the-ages original record.

Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie Raitt

Event Reviews

All-American music legend Bonnie Raitt played the Riverwind Casino Showplace Theatre in Norman, Oklahoma, recently while on her Live 2025 international concert tour. Longtime Ink 19 contributor Christopher Long was there and got the goods.

The Loft

The Loft

Music Reviews

Everything Changes, Everything Stays the Same (Tapete Records). Review by Peter Lindblad.