Vancouver BC's punk trio Mutators aren't your average post-everything screamers punx, though they are of that generation...and what i mean by that (in case you are not getting the grandma lexicon) is those younger adults known as "kids" who are into really cool shit that used to be hella obscure but in the past 10-15 years got integrated into the cool shit underground music canon, ie no wave, avant garde classical music, noise, industrial music, post-punk and just in general regional groups that never toured or put records out so remained unknown to those of us who grew up before the obscure history of everything was so instantly accessible ..(in this case the SCREAMERS are the example of this salvaged punk band that was so obscure that, if i remember correctly, they didn't release anything besides a demo tape and a Target video, which was supposedly their album, and so while their name was fairly well known on the west coast, most people didn't hear them until the late 90's when a well circulated bootleg was released on vinyl; if you wanna google them you'll know more about it than me because untill right now i never did that, but here you go)....well enough about generation gaps...this is all to say that in many ways, most of them formal, punk is better now than it used to be, but it sometimes means less and just seems like pastiche. mutators are one of those groups, but they have amazing energy, presence and possibly the best punk girl singer-i-mean-screamer of all time. you might trace it back to Lydia Lunch's early group, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks or a more recent reference like VIKI (LOAD RECORDS/ANIMAL DISGUISE RECORDINGS) from detroit but that's not why you would care.
last night i listened to this record twice in a row, lying on the floor, not doing anything else. this is how i used to listen to music all the time, but rarely does something command my full attention these days. having seen mutators live a few times, i was pleased to be able to hear lief's vocals full force. so many times i have wanted to hear a sound like her voice...to make that sound come out of my own mouth...it is a monstrosity, but so familiar in feeling as to make you wonder where all the other bands are that make rad sounds like this. to be fair, the other musicians in the group are wild and furious too. the music is minimal (a two piece?) noise-core with echoes of black flag my war era type abandon; but with no wave/noise leanings and minus the metal. fucking rad. i wish there was a lyric sheet. this is the best sounding record in awhile, so i wanna know what the songs are about, if they are about more than sound, that would be killer, but if not, this sound itself means a lot to me; it replaces the silence of my own unrecorded screams....which is incredibly comforting. it hurts to make this sound, but it also sucks to never be in a situation where making noise like this is a possibility...you could go in the woods or get on stage and i don't really wanna do either of those things right now, but i do feel like making this sound, or attempting to rather, almost every day all day. ok go listen to them now and try not to be as cynical as i sound about 'the kids these days' because this is an awesome record.
