Chunklet/Buddyhead/Monitor Records party
Room Service/Sound on Sound, Friday, March 17
Sometimes all you need to cure a raging, soul-crushing hangover is a nice old-fashioned block party. As North Loop shops Sound on Sound and Room Service hosted the eight-hour tag-team Chunklet magazine/Buddyhead/Monitor Records soiree on Friday afternoon, those hangover cures could be seen all over: Tallboys wrapped in brown paper bags. If Ted Leo and the Pharmacists weren’t enough, there was also music loud enough to make your want to ferret out your own eardrums. Duo Swearing at Motorists did doughnuts around crunchy rock anthems about Swedish models and drugs, as Chunklet founder Henry Owings sang the words along with them. Elf Power‘s Athens-meets-San Francisco, 1969 sound reverberated as cellist Heather McIntosh sawed off staccato noise. Of course, there was also that trademark Elephant 6 weirdness all over it. Rye Coalition took the MC5’s exhaust-fueled jams and kicked them into New Jersey, running through songs from their upcoming Curses LP, a crusty ZZ Top homage, and a Grand Funk Railroad cover. London quartet Part Chimp brought out the big sound: the sludgy metal knuckle-dragging across crashing drums, at once epic and chaotic. Their latest, I Am Come, promises enough fodder for a month’s worth of ear-ringing. Beyond ear-ringing, however, was the next band, a Miami quartet named Torche. “Holy,” “fucking,” and “shit” are the first few words that come to mind as drums collide with volcanic riffs, creating molten Southern swamp doom that could burn out your retinas. The perfect sound for a day commemorating pagans being driven out of Ireland.This article appears in March 17 • 2006.