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.