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This Microwave World
(ed: Today's entry is brought to you by a friend of See You in the Pit. Last Girl to the Party is a C-list Austin scenester with a day job. She clings aggressively to the music of her formative years and digs dyed-black indie scrawn. She'd also like you to know that she knows that Little Miss Rock'n'Roll refuses to use the loo at Emo's.)
This Microwave World are loud. Of course, that's the last thing one would expect on first sight of frontman, Sean O'Neal, moving through a crowd of hipsters. What one would expect is music that is plaintive, softspoken, and sweet. But O'Neal is a bird of another feather entirely — manning a down-home post-punk behemoth that has slogged out Austin nights hot and cold alike, opening for Spoon, ...Trail of Dead, VHS or Beta, and I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness. On stage, he channels some inner beast that's an amalgam of The Fall's Mark E. Smith, Les Savy Fav's Tim Harrington, and a tiny bit of Trevor Tanner from the long gone Bolshoi. Live, TMW play a blistering set, as O'Neal's breathless speak/singing is punctuated by noisy guitar, harsh keyboard stabs, precise bass, and a drummer as punchy as the machine that used to back them.
I became a convert the first time I saw TMW; previously, I'd lumped them in with projects like Figurine and referred to them as a second-rate Faint. Bad idea on both counts, since the little guy with the big hair (O'Neal), the Vox Jaguar warrior (Evan Lawrence, armed with a mod-squad look as ubiquitous as that of indie rock's own Angus Young: Interpol's Carlos Dengler), and their straight man (Brandon Loe with the powerful punk funk) were bringing something big, something very big. Backed by Erin Mikulenka's Korg noodlings and drummer Kevin Bybee, This Microwave World touch on new wave, no wave, post-millennial meltdown, and coldwar childhood, putting a uniquely "Austin" spin on whatever passes for dance-punk these days.
That said, TMW aren't for the faint of heart. Nor are they for the weak of live show constitution! Throbbing bass, intentionally hot hot vocals, and even hotter guitar are occasionally wont for earplugs, but, in the live show, the band offers an immediacy of experience that lends something visceral and human; this stands in stark contract to their harsh and hip-ly frosty studio presence that's been served up across three self-produced and released EPs. If you desperately need a pop song to get you through the night, TMW won't offer deliverance, but if you need to scream with a bitter sneer, a buzz in your ear, and a bump in your rump, they are the band for you, especially if you like your music with a side of controlled substances and self-parodying depravity, leaving you wondering where the real stops and the pose begins.
This Microwave World - The Party Line
This Microwave World - Fun Fun Fun
This Microwave World - The Hours
This Microwave World - In Hospital
This Microwave World's website. Their debut album, Red States, is due in May on Tight Spot Records.
Posted by Last Girl to the Party at 03.02.05 at 1:36 PM
Comments
Okay, now I am intrigued
Posted by: Bianca at 03.02.05 at 3:39 PM
they are so loud that i find myself moving further and further away from the stage everytime that i see them. i wish they wouldn't take it up to 11--i think i'd like them more if my ears didn't bleed when they played.
Posted by: jo at 03.02.05 at 9:58 PM
Well, they ARE called 'This Microwave World,' maybe they are trying to use sound waves to heat up and melt down the stage. (I rue the day that I'll need to bring in runway/tarmac ear protection. Perhaps with a dial to set the levels to the ear? Let Steve Jobs & Co. design it, and we might have another geek-chic accessory.)
Posted by: djm at 03.04.05 at 11:27 AM
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