Meatbodies – Meatbodies
You know how sometimes it’s not what you know but who you know that counts? Well, Chad Ubovich knows everybody but it just so happens he also knows a thing or two about scuzzy garage-rock. You just don’t get to be Mikal Cronin’s touring guitarist and bassist for Fuzz otherwise. And, following a 2013 tape on Ty Segall’s own God? Imprint, cue the inevitable In the Red LP.
If its trip-tastic cover art seems familiar that’s because Tatiana Kartometen also got weird with Segall’s Slaughterhouse and the Fuzz sleeves. Segall himself even gets a credit or two here manning the sticks and bass on a track or two. Where does Ubovich fit in this rich spectrum? Slap bang in the middle, save for a couple of unremarkable slower pace forays into dreamy psychedelia.
Spun out with wild shred, the rowdy “Gold” houses a snotty shout-along not unlike Black Lips. Modest wail in tow, “Mountain” is the sound of a drum-kit being smashed to smithereens. Heavy on melody, heavy on slay they keep on coming. The tumbledown “Off” pogoes round like The Ramones on a sugar rush. Pedal to the metal, needles in the red, “Disorder” is catchy as hell, launching headlong into head-banging riffs. “Wahoo” has been beefed-up for the LP release and it’s pure party, sounding exactly like it should from its title and leaving a trail of beer tins in its wake.
Perhaps an ode to Segall (why not?), “The Master” is a 70s rock master-class until a wave of fuzz and sludgy freak-out obliterates all before it. And, speaking of which, if the filthy blown-out grooves of “Tremmors” were to be sold as the new Segall there’d be very few complaints, much like most of Meatbodies. Ubovich has just been promoted from the go-to guy to being a made man.
Best tracks: “Tremmors” and “Off”
~Meatbodies is released 20th October 2014 on In The Red.~