Sunday, May 19, 2013

the hecks - trust and order 7 inch


Falling between genres can lead to the early death of a band, especially these days with the internet
hype machine's need for shorthand and brevity.  Though connected to the "garage" and "noise" scenes in Chicago, THE HECKS are out to prove that those / any "labels" are meaningless, even if they have to do it one 7 inch at a time.  Their debut single, TRUST AND ORDER released on MONIKER RECORDS earlier this year, is just the feedback-laced experimental guitar/drums dual attack all those stuck in the blog race to the bottom need to listen to right now.

Elements of Sonic Youth's art rock experiments in feedback and guitar tuning, Wire's discordant post punk minimalism from "Chairs Missing,"  and the Fall's irreverent pop structures all shine through on "Trust And Order."  Though to allude to those touchstones is besides the point; the Hecks are blazing a trail through the history of post punk all on their own, not just trying to cop a few guitar tricks from YouTube videos.  (They might even deny any of the musical references made here, but it's a review so some have to be included, right?)

On the title track, a casual minimalist drum beat starts the groove off before a simple repetitive guitar lick kicks in, and before long we're somewhere in the realm of "EVOL" or even Slint's "Spiderland" but mixed with plenty of Urinals' urgency and angular art weirdness of MX-80 Sound or DNA.  Short, precise and too the point, "Trust And Order" lingers like a daydream long after the tone arm returns to its place; those shimmering guitar riffs are earworms for sure.

Flip it over and "The Time I Played With My Puppy" begins like a shattered pop song from Guided By Voices and ends with a short experiment in droning noise.  It's almost two distinct songs trainwrecked into one catchy mess, the kind you might imagine Suicide playing if they were a drums / guitar duo.

So are the Hecks more of a shoegazing noise rock band, or a no wave obsessed garage outfit?  They have a knack for sculpting sheets of noise, yet both songs on the single have fragmented moments of pop beauty too.  One thing is for sure, they've collected some of the most interesting turns of post punk from the last thirty years and compiled them into one killer 7 inch.

Listen to TRUST AND ORDER below -
   and grab yer own copy from MONIKER RECORDS here !!!!!!!




WATCH THE HECKS LIVE here -

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