Our latest CD "Debaclelypse" is now available at the Kinkzoid website. 10 more songs for your listening pleasure.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
CD "Further unpleasantries"
The "Further Unpleasantries" CD has 10 new songs including the KinkZoid treatment of a classic Pink Floyd song.
Go the web site at http://www.kinkzoid.com/ to have a listen.
A review of this CD by on Feb. 26, 2008 by Brad Glanden.
Their name recalls their past as members of The Blitzoids, and also—whether intentionally or not—rock music’s own past (The Kinks, Pink Floyd). But unlike the many generic indie-rock acts who strain to emulate the quirkiness of Ray Davies or Syd Barrett, Chicago’s KinkZoid is difficult to classify because their music has fewer precedents. This is one band that’s looking anywhere but backwards.
Like their previous releases, Further Unpleasantries could be designated as “avant-rock,” a label that admittedly requires further differentiation (should Henry Cow and The Red Krayola really be in the same category?). But what KinkZoid lacks in hit-single potential, it more than makes up for in originality, humor, and sheer sonic invention. While many of the sounds on display are not exactly “beautiful” by traditional Western standards, the way KinkZoid arranges and layers those sounds are, dare I say it, painterly, even if the painter that comes to mind is Hieronymus Bosch.
Perhaps best known for turning the currently jailed former president of the FLDS Church into an unlikely rock vocalist with “Warren Jeffs Explains” (from last year’s The Book of Pages), KinkZoid is practiced in the art of the disturbingly funny sample. Those abound on Further Unpleasantries, but the emphasis is on building surreal audio imagery that is apt to induce uneasy laughter.
And that’s just what the band does on each of ten meticulously composed tracks. “Holes, Veins, and Brains” matches darkly comical anti-drug lyrics with dense instrumental activity to stunning effect. “DateLine / Into the Light” suggests an out-of-body experience guided by Negativland’s Weatherman, and it contains the album’s nuttiest plunderphonic antics. KinkZoid even covers Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days” and out-weirds Floyd at their weirdest, crafting a singularly impressive piece of work in the process.
Further Unpleasantries provides a listening experience that, for lack of an already existing term, must be described as “KinkZoidian.” It may not boast the studio sheen or big-name draw of, say, a U2 album (and that alone may be recommendation for some), but its dark textures, twisted humor, and profound imagination ensure that certain tastes will find it exquisite.
Like their previous releases, Further Unpleasantries could be designated as “avant-rock,” a label that admittedly requires further differentiation (should Henry Cow and The Red Krayola really be in the same category?). But what KinkZoid lacks in hit-single potential, it more than makes up for in originality, humor, and sheer sonic invention. While many of the sounds on display are not exactly “beautiful” by traditional Western standards, the way KinkZoid arranges and layers those sounds are, dare I say it, painterly, even if the painter that comes to mind is Hieronymus Bosch.
Perhaps best known for turning the currently jailed former president of the FLDS Church into an unlikely rock vocalist with “Warren Jeffs Explains” (from last year’s The Book of Pages), KinkZoid is practiced in the art of the disturbingly funny sample. Those abound on Further Unpleasantries, but the emphasis is on building surreal audio imagery that is apt to induce uneasy laughter.
And that’s just what the band does on each of ten meticulously composed tracks. “Holes, Veins, and Brains” matches darkly comical anti-drug lyrics with dense instrumental activity to stunning effect. “DateLine / Into the Light” suggests an out-of-body experience guided by Negativland’s Weatherman, and it contains the album’s nuttiest plunderphonic antics. KinkZoid even covers Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days” and out-weirds Floyd at their weirdest, crafting a singularly impressive piece of work in the process.
Further Unpleasantries provides a listening experience that, for lack of an already existing term, must be described as “KinkZoidian.” It may not boast the studio sheen or big-name draw of, say, a U2 album (and that alone may be recommendation for some), but its dark textures, twisted humor, and profound imagination ensure that certain tastes will find it exquisite.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
CD 'The Book Of Pages'
'The Book Of Pages' is available from the KinkZoid website. You can check out a review of the CD on this page.
We worked out a lot of the recording kinks we had on the first CD and the result is a fuller more consistant sound.
We hope you enjoy it!
KinkZoid
We worked out a lot of the recording kinks we had on the first CD and the result is a fuller more consistant sound.
We hope you enjoy it!
KinkZoid
Review of The Book of Pages by Brad Glanden
KinkZoid - The Book of Pages (Mook Records, 2007)
Not to be confused with Pink Floyd, Chicago's KinkZoid comprises former members of avant rock trio The Blitzoids, whose oeuvre--recently reissued on Ad Hoc Records (read my review at All About Jazz)--still sounds fresh today. Blitzoid converts with an interest in the band members' current activities will be pleased to learn that The Book of Pages is even more deranged than the Blitzoids' LPs, while demonstrating considerable musical growth and even darker humor. This is not to suggest that KinkZoid’s self-released sophomore release can’t be enjoyed by newcomers; it’s an altogether different beast.The first track, “Warren Jeffs Explains”, immediately sets the album’s tone with a musical setting of notorious FLDS president Jeffs’ interpretation of rock ‘n’ roll’s origins. KinkZoid frequently uses mutated samples from nationalistic speeches, including a syntactic faux pas or two from everyone’s favorite current president, George W. Bush. These are sometimes laid over music with a Middle Eastern flavor, outlining a recurrent theme of The Book of Pages--namely, the deadly dangers inherent in fundamentalist readings of a religious text.Heavily treated vocals render the lyrics difficult to decipher; now and again, a stray phrase--“My telltale heart wants to poke you in the eye” from “Too Lazy to Kill”, for example--reaffirms KinkZoid’s predilection for twisted narratives. “I Was Walking” is a lyrical Moebius strip, somewhat like a MAD Magazine cover showing Alfred E. Neuman reading a MAD Magazine with a cover of Alfred E. Neuman reading MAD Magazine, ad infinitum. “They’re Burning”, meanwhile, seems to be a rant of some kind against McDonald’s and Starbucks.The Book of Pages is outsider music par excellence, a kaleidoscope of pitch-black humor, exotic sounds, and kooky audio ephemera. Those who are partial to sound collage should give this one a listen.
Not to be confused with Pink Floyd, Chicago's KinkZoid comprises former members of avant rock trio The Blitzoids, whose oeuvre--recently reissued on Ad Hoc Records (read my review at All About Jazz)--still sounds fresh today. Blitzoid converts with an interest in the band members' current activities will be pleased to learn that The Book of Pages is even more deranged than the Blitzoids' LPs, while demonstrating considerable musical growth and even darker humor. This is not to suggest that KinkZoid’s self-released sophomore release can’t be enjoyed by newcomers; it’s an altogether different beast.The first track, “Warren Jeffs Explains”, immediately sets the album’s tone with a musical setting of notorious FLDS president Jeffs’ interpretation of rock ‘n’ roll’s origins. KinkZoid frequently uses mutated samples from nationalistic speeches, including a syntactic faux pas or two from everyone’s favorite current president, George W. Bush. These are sometimes laid over music with a Middle Eastern flavor, outlining a recurrent theme of The Book of Pages--namely, the deadly dangers inherent in fundamentalist readings of a religious text.Heavily treated vocals render the lyrics difficult to decipher; now and again, a stray phrase--“My telltale heart wants to poke you in the eye” from “Too Lazy to Kill”, for example--reaffirms KinkZoid’s predilection for twisted narratives. “I Was Walking” is a lyrical Moebius strip, somewhat like a MAD Magazine cover showing Alfred E. Neuman reading a MAD Magazine with a cover of Alfred E. Neuman reading MAD Magazine, ad infinitum. “They’re Burning”, meanwhile, seems to be a rant of some kind against McDonald’s and Starbucks.The Book of Pages is outsider music par excellence, a kaleidoscope of pitch-black humor, exotic sounds, and kooky audio ephemera. Those who are partial to sound collage should give this one a listen.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Welcome to the KinkZoid Blog
Welcome to the KinkZoid Blog.
Please visit our site at www.kinkzoid.com
Our new Cd "The Book of Pages" is nearly complete and should be out in the next month or so. There is a limited release mini CD single with two songs in advance of the full CD. The "A" side is a song called "Warren Jeffs Explains" and it features Mr. Jeffs sermon on the origins of Rock music set to some mutant blues. Warren Jeffs speaks in such a hypnotic rhythmic (4/4) tone that only dead space was edited out of his original speech to make it fit the music. He is one scary Mother Fucker, and the song is pretty creepy!
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