ISS - Endless Pussyfooting (State Laughter, 2017)

ISS
Endless Pussyfooting
State Laughter
2017

Rating: 8 offgassing plastic trays out of 10

The duo known as ISS, aka Rich (of Bodykit, formerly Whatever Brains) and Eddie (of Brain F≠), are as confounding and interesting a band as you'll come across today.  I'm doing this one in bullet points because I'm not entirely sure how to put all of these thoughts together...
 - The music is made mostly of samples of punk songs, with some additional synth here and there.
 - The results span everything from industrial to punk to noise to god knows what else; Imagine Liars meets Les Savy Fav meets the Fall meets...fuck, there's a lot going on here and I can't even begin to pinpoint it all.  If you ever listened to Whatever Brains, imagine a dancier, crazier version of that band.
 - What sounds like a potential hot mess is actually quite catchy.  Calling this music catchy might actually anger Rich.  
 - "The Gov't Is After Me" is one of my favorite songs of the year.  
 - This cassette-only release has 14 songs in 21 minutes...there's no fluff to be found.  There is supposed to be a vinyl release in the future though, and fingers crossed no lawsuits from all the samples.  This would be great because I sold my car that had a tape deck.

ISS - Studs (Self-Released, 2016)

ISS
Studs
Self-Released
2016

Rating: 8 glasses of frozen hamburger juice out of 10

ISS is Rich from Whatever Brains (now of Bodykit) and another dude from Brain F≠, and together they make this industrial punk that's got kind of a...dance pop vibe too it?  Because Rich is singing it's impossible for me not to automatically compare this to Whatever Brains because I've listened to them so damn much, but it's as if the goal here was to write the songs in the style of Le Tigre, and this is what came out.  I hear this particularly in the first two songs "Part-Time All the Time" and "Five Hours to Midnight."  Possibly thecraziest track is "Peniss Envy," where I guess they decided they wanted everyone to think they were a Revolting Cocks cover band.   

Only fifty of these tapes were made, so if you see one grab one.  It's only ten minutes long (six songs total), so you'll never get bored.  According to Rich/Sorry State, "some of these songs will be on the new FULL LENGTH TAPE on NEW BODY TAPES out later this year. that will be pro dubbed. These kinda sound shitty. Sorry!"

Whatever Brains - SSR-63 / SSR-64 EPs (Sorry State, 2014)

Whatever Brains
SSR-63 / SSR-64 EPs Sorry State
2014

Rating: 8 broken pet hospitals out 10

I'm doing this review as a list because yes. 
 
1.  Whatever Brains is one of my favorite things in the entire world and they can do no wrong in my eyes.  Know that going into reading any of this dribble. 
2.  I have been struggling for years to come up with a fitting comparison for them, to no avail.  These days the closest you can come is parts of some of their songs sound like Liars somewhat, and I'm not sure anyone even agrees with me on that.  I keep hearing it though. 
3.  I took the photo the band used for one of these EP covers (if you can't tell which one, it's the cover that is a photo and not a drawing).  I didn't know the band at all before this, so them finding my photo out of the blue and asking to use it as a cover ranks pretty high on my list of life successes. 
4.  If item one didn't point to how biased this review might be, item three should have definitely given it away right? 
5.  As much as I love all of their records, live is the way to enjoy this band.  They don't tour out of the area a ton but if they ever do, don't miss it.  It's a cacophonous wall of enjoyable noise, and frontman Rich Ivey has a gift for performance.   
6.  Why release two EPs (with each EP one side a 12'' record) instead of just calling it a full length?  Who knows.  And yet somehow with this band it makes sense. 
7.  The "titles" of these EPs are actually the Sorry State catalog numbers, so as to differentiate them from the band's other releases.  Technically both EPs are self-titled, just like the three LPs the band has already put out.  For those that can't count, that is five self-titled albums by Whatever Brains.  They really don't like thinking up titles for their records apparently. 
8.  The entire first EP SSR-63 is one 22 -minute long track called "///////," and it's all about the true story of a hermit Russian family living in Siberia that had not contacted another human in over 40 years.  There was a long article about it in Smithsonian (read it here) - the article is as fascinating as the song is awesome.  That is to say, very. 
9.  The second EP, SSR-64, is a more straight-forward four song affair.  The band seems to slowly be moving into a more keyboard/noise/electronic beat direction, hence the previous mention of Liars.  It works for them. 
10.  I don't have a tenth point, but I do have an affection for lists of ten.  Go buy this record. 

Whatever Brains - 4 Song EP (Sorry State, 2012)

Whatever Brains
4 Song EP
Sorry State
2012

Rating: 7.5 beginning plagues out of 10

(Moving forward I will occasionally be including reviews of older seven inches I own as I go through my collection and figure out what I have, what I need to keep, and what I need to get rid of.)

A limited-edition Whatever Brains seven inch for Record Store Day in 2012 (limited to 220 copies total).  Like all things Whatever Brains, it fuckin' rules.  As the title suggests it includes four songs - a Double Negative cover, a Wall of Voodoo cover, a demo, and a remix of one of their songs by Waumiss.  If you don't already know the originals they cover you'd think they were just WB originals.  Wish I could find MP3s of this somewhere to listen to in my car or on my phone or wherever else I don't have a record player (aka anywhere not in my house).

Whatever Brains - Whatever Brains (Sorry State, 2013)

Whatever Brains

Whatever Brains

Sorry State

2013

Rating: 8.5 crinkly film packages out of 10

 

For the third year in a row, Triangle weirdos Whatever Brains have released a self-titled record.  And for the third year in a row, these titleless albums have been amongst my very favorite things to come out that year.  Trying to come up with a fitting comparison for this band is about as hard as catching a fly with chopsticks for anyone not named Mr. Miyagi... when they are in their most conventional rock band mode, there is a strong whiff of Les Savy Fav (and subsequently, Fugazi), but that is only a small portion of the time.  A lot of moments make me think of the Fall, other times remind me of Liars, but the mix of all of these factos is very specific to Whatever Brains.  They are band to be listened to, not explained, to be perfectly honest.  Some acts defy talking points.  Even more importantly they are a band to be seen, and luckily living in the same area as them I've managed that multiple times as they play out often.  In the off chance they come to your town, don't be a dildo and miss the show.

Whatever Brains - Whatever Brains (Sorry State, 2011)

Whatever Brains

Whatever Brains

Sorry State

2011

Rating: 8 hangdog poses out of 10

I've been meaning to/trying to review this Whatever Brains self-titled debut album for a while now.  Despite them being one of my very very favorite local bands, I'm constantly at a loss as to what ot say about them.  You could narrow down songs or parts of songs and compare it to a thousand different bands - Les Savy Fav, McClusky, The Fall, some of the electro-punk side projects of Jay Reatard like Final Solutions and Nervous Patterns, Devo being chased by feral dogs...fuck, they sound like a lot of shit if you try to break it down.  But as a whole, when you listen to the album from start to finish - I'm not sure they sound like a single other band on the planet.  A bold statement, sure, but I listen to a lot of fucking music and have seen a lot of bands live, and I've truly never experienced anything like the Brains.  Let's just call it noise-electro-scuzz-punk.  More importantly, let's call it awesome.