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Gay For Johnny Depp - Sex Vid Singles Club EP

Gay For Johnny Depp

Sex Vid Singles Club EP

 

New York City-based five-piece Gay For Johnny Depp have never been a band to mince their words. Starting out in 2004, they’ve been relentlessly and breathlessly professing, through their spazzed out, choppy brand of irascible post-punk, their sexual desire for the movie star whose name they’ve (sort of) taken as their own. Sex Vid Singles Club is the follow-up to their 2009 EP, The Ski Mask Orgy, and the precursor to their forthcoming second album. Famed for song titles as good as their moniker, they’ve certainly not let themselves down with these six songs, particularly “Hey Fucked Up! (Good Punk Rock Can’t Exist In Countries With Good Social Services),” an antagonistic dig at Canada’s current hardcore heroes, with a subtle attack at Sweden’s Refused thrown in for good measure. They’re certainly not going to make any friends that way, but that’s precisely the point—Gay For Johnny Depp have always relished in pissing people off and dividing opinion.

Musically, these six songs encompass everything that is right (or, depending on your point of view, wrong) about the band. Lasting just under 12 minutes in total, each track is a short, sharp, rapacious burst of intense, provocative noise—a violent ejaculation of disturbed, disturbing disgust with the state of the world. They may have toned down the graphic sexual lyrics in favor of conspiracy-themed political rebellion and social commentary, but it’s still quite shocking and utterly abrasive. Occasionally, when singer Marty Leopard’s guttural scream gives way to a Thom Yorke-esque falsetto whine, it does begin to grate—namely on the amusing but rather patronizingly titled “Belief In God Is So Adorable”—but he’d probably argue that that’s the point. As he semi-sings halfway through the song, “It’s kind of fun to watch you bleed.”

Shinebox http://www.shinebox-recordings.com

“Hey Fucked Up! (Good Punk Rock Can’t Exist In Countries With Good Social Services)”

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