Deep under the influence

Rock + Noise + Minneapolis = Amphetamine Reptile Records fersure, and this band Buildings (from Minneapolis) fersurely would’ve fit nice and snug between Hammerhead and Halo Of Flies on one of those Dope Guns comps AmRep used to crank out every so often years ago.

But this ain’t then, it’s now, and now kids don’t like NOISE so much. Now, kids like rappers that sound like robot goblins telling almost-sex stories over brittle beats. And good for them. The kids gotta have their own things. But where does that leave a trio of holy hellraisers like Buildings?

I don’t have the answer, but if there are still any youngsters left that want to have their ears smacked around, I’m pretty sure Buildings would be happy to oblige.

Melt Cry Sleep is ferocious from start to finish, ferocious enough to make up for their lack of an original blueprint. These Buildings, you see, are constructed squarely upon a foundation originally engineered by The Jesus Lizard. That wouldn’t matter to the average bored, white suburban teen male ghetto-voyeur discovering NOISE for the first time, but for anyone familiar with Yow & Co., the similarities are, well, sometimes more than mere similarity.

Take the track “I Don’t Love My Dog Anymore” as The Prime Example. The entire thing is brutally Lizard, but when Buildings’ bassist Sayer Payne and drummer Travis Kuhlman lock in at about the 1:40 mark, I expected to hear David Yow pop up and snarl “You should see her use a gun…”

Other than the occasional wholesale theft of Jesus Lizard song structures, and their singer/grunter/guitarist Brian Lake’s voice being deep-sixed into the mix, I like this record. IT’S NOT BLOWING MY MIND, but Buildings are an unusually tight and aggressive band, and I bet they’ve blown the windows out of a few live venues.