AIDS Wolf - The Lovvers LP

Genre experimental Publisher Lovepump United External Links Official Website Lovepump United

It was only a matter of time before the bloom came off the Montreal indie rock rose, but it was so enjoyable while it lasted, that it's a shame it had to end so soon. Actually, it's ridiculous to come out and declare an undeniably rich musical community dead, but with the release of an atrocious debut album by an experimental noise outfit calling themselves AIDS Wolf that's about as fun as a horsefly-ridden outhouse, it might as well be.

When reviewing indie rock, critics get their fair share of CDs by musical wackos, and more often than not, it's those strange, unknown releases that provide some of the best surprises in any given year. Once in a while, though, we get a CD by a bunch of condescending artistes that is all style and zero sincerity, containing music that lacks any redeeming qualities whatsoever, the only purpose of which is to serve as a musical litmus test to see who will blindly praise it to continue to look cool, or who will stand up and say, "Enough of this crap." And in the case of The Lovvers LP, ENOUGH. Uncle. We get it, you're a crazy, eccentric band. Now please leave.

In the chaotic realm of noise rock, the line between good and bad is very thin, not to mention highly subjective at times, and the genre is definitely not for everybody, but it only takes one listen to this CD to realize just how low on the noise rock scale AIDS Wolf ranks. Lazy critics will cut-and-paste the band's bio, comparing The Lovvers LP to such groundbreaking acts as Black Dice and Melt Banana, but in actuality, instead of possessing the flair that an album like Black Dice's Beaches and Canyons bursts at the seams with, this CD goes through the motions with an oh, aren't we clever air to it, comprising of mostly a cacophonous, sloppy, and even worse, boring, din, and little else. Guitars skronk and screech, bass rumbles away with discordant notes, drums play rote 4/4 beats every so often, and vocalist Chloe Lum attempts to imitate Yoko Ono and The Boredoms' Yoshimi P-We, spewing indecipherable lines, and fails miserably. If anything, the album is a waste of the band's unnamed guitarist, who actually displays some impressive dissonant dexterity on songs like "We Multiply" and "The Hat Collector," but the memorable moments are fleeting, and never develop into anything. So abysmal is this record, that the fact that Wolf Parade drummer Arlen Thomsen's name is attached to the project (he's the producer) is enough to make one think less of Wolf Parade. The most surprising thing is, Lum is one half of Seripop, a supremely gifted Montreal visual art duo who specializes in eye-grabbing, silkscreened concert posters, and sadly, there's none of the same kind of inspiration to be heard in her foray into music at all.

Weird music can be fun. The best outsider music, from the late Wesley Willis, to The Shaggs, to Wild Man Fischer, to The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, all work because you get a feeling of authenticity from the artists. Wesley Willis loved his Rock 'n' Roll McDonald's, The Shaggs meant every word of "My Pal Foot Foot," and The Ledge's "Paralyzed" is one of the most insanely fun songs ever. In the case of AIDS Wolf, there's none of that, no feeling whatsoever, just a bunch of sorry hipsters making pointless noise under the guise of "art," using a provocative name to incite controversy, posing naked on the CD foldout in all their hirsute glory to show they're willing to do anything to get attention, and wasting all our valuable time when there's real music we'd all rather be listening to. After listening to the 12 minute circle jerk "Some Sexual Drawings" 20 times, after spending over an hour scribbling down more than 600 words in this review, in the end, my best advice to you, dear reader, is to just avert your gaze and forget this band ever happened. To give them any more attention is to just encourage them. Ignore them, and they'll go away. Oh please, make them go away...