Pong
Killer Lifestyle (Woodeye) My brother-in-law loaned me this album, and there’s a damn good chance he won’t be getting it back. Topping the psychedelic bottom-wiggling goodness of Pong’s live shows is a tall order, but Killer Lifestyle is a dazzling aural postcard that’ll make you wish you were there. Pong carries on the chunky rhythm section purveyed by bassist Larry Strub and drummer Lyman Hardy during the heady days of Austin’s vaunted Ed Hall, but the action up top is a different story. Guitarists Gary Chester and Jason Craig, along with keyboard wizard Shane Shelton, wrap the local quintet’s slow-driving groove up in a veil of Brian Eno-style retro-futurism that lends the proceedings the air of a 1975 Berlin bomb-shelter orgy with your hosts Iggy Pop and David Bowie. Killer Lifestyle commences enthusiastically with the summer top-dropping chug of “Foot Foot,” a tribute to the local band of the same name, not the Shaggs’ dearly departed canine. Then we mellow out slightly with “Incapacitated,” a doomsayer ode given extra weight by Chester’s tasteful, un-Frampton-like use of the talk box. “New World Order” turns the nightmarish First World pursuit of store-bought happiness in on itself as a collective marathon dance on the ruins that becomes more fevered with every round. The album loses a bit of momentum in the bottom third, but recovers nicely with a robotic sing-along workout of Pong’s title song. This is followed by a hidden track of a hilariously twisted crank call to Apple computer’s customer support line. All in all, Killer Lifestyle is a fine example of post-apocalyptic science fiction rock you can dance to at a price you can afford.
This article appears in October 19 • 2001.
