By Jeffery McNulty
You know how people are rediscovering heavy noise rock these days? You know how I’m always going on about Am-Rep bands and how Trance Syndicate used to be heavy and cool? Well, turns out there was a band holding it down for years in this town: The Greenriver Thrillers.
Since 2002 they have been not so quietly making hard heavy, weird, stupid-good noise rock. For some reason they are a band that most underground musicians I know really like but sometimes end being up overlooked by the rest of the region’s show-goers. Seattle Rock Guy blog called them “the most underrated band in Seattle” and I have to agree! In a sense they were doing it both before and after it was “cool”.
I know I’m not the only dude who thought, “Hell yeah! The Thrillers finally put another record out!” Retarder does not disappoint in any way. The production is top notch and the songs are excellent. I am a big fan of Gary’s bass tone: it’s jagged and propulsive. Phil’s drumming style is exactly right and sounds huge on the record. Alan has a self-deprecating sense of humor that belies how good he is as both a guitar player and a singer.
Maybe, if this is the first you’ve heard of the Thrillers, you might think their name sounds like an over the top Hellacopters style rock-n-roll band. Nope. They owe more to Scratch Acid and the Cows than to anybody else. Not that they aren’t over the top! The bass and drums are pounding, the guitars are gritty and heavy and the vocals are distorted like crazy. And the un-PC lyrics are the type that, on the face of things seems like silly nonsense until you realize how smart they really are. They definitely remind me of Ed Hall in that way.
From the barn burner opener ‘PMP’ through the epic middle track ‘Six Year Old Man’ all the way through to ‘Beef Curtain’ and into the closer ‘Tranny’, this record starts off strong and stays tough the whole time. (Before you get all uppity on me about the album and song titles you better remember Albini had a killer band called Rapeman. And that’s WAY worse ha ha! Personally I find the middle school absurdity hilarious, but I’m the type of guy who loves Sockeye.) Retarder is definitely on my top ten for the year.
Buy it from them at a show or download it here: http://greenriverthrillers.bandcamp.com/album/retarder Official Web site: http://www.greenriverthrillers.com/home
