YOU! Eyes up here! Especially you, in the back. You want noise? You want your head scrambled like day-old hash browns? You wanna make out on the next roller coaster ride?!
Well, slow down, tiger. Don’t get me wrong — as a live act, the Callous Daoboys may be the finest five-piece mess of sludge metal and noisy punk round these parts. And by finest, of course, I mean sloppier than a spoonful of Brunswick stew slung straight from the pot onto yr shirt. Why is someone slinging stew at you? Obviously, because singer and resident maniac Carson Pace started a food fight at your hometown’s local BBQ joint and they’re leading an uncoordinated assault on the hicks with their ragtag gang’s oil-smothered riffs. But their secret weapon isn’t any stew or beef, it’s Amber Christman’s scorching fiddle, which zings like Texas Pete at the tip of yr tongue.
That’s how the live setup feels, anyway. But My Dixie Wrecked is… well, it’s a record, y’know, which means that all that jalopy freezes into a very familiar form of old-fashioned noise and metal, on the sunnier side of the Melvins with a splash of At the Drive-In. Mind, the production’s good — Pace’s oblique rants and the barnburnin’ violin pierce straight through the muck, whereas both often drown on the stage. And while the D-Boys may muscle through these songs with the driving force of a four-wheeler, the EP never sags under the weight — check the pummeling thrash of “Tag Yourself, I’m the Tan Line,” or the renegade cowbell in “She Thinks My Tractor Beam is Sexy.” And, of course, there’s the three or four different tempo shifts in “How to Attack the Oldest Roller Coaster in America,” the adrenaline-pumped two-part closer. Our D-Boys are heavy, but not too heavy, which is how they should be, since neither doom or gloom are on the agenda.
But something’s missing. The movement? The chaos? There’s a bit of that here, with an outtake intro to “It” left in, and the second half of “How to Attack,” where some in the band get to yell stuff like “SEMEN!” for nearly five minutes over a slug-paced beat. Which is THE BEST. But otherwise, My Dixie Wrecked doesn’t quite capture the messy anarchy of a Callous Daoboys show, although the metal box is still there, and the band still bounces against walls. Give them a few years to marinate, though, and they’ll shatter it, I swear.
If you’re still up for that date, though… Actually, nah. Save it.
My Dixie Wrecked is out April 1.
The Callous Daoboys will perform tomorrow, Mar. 31, at the Mammal Gallery when they play in support of the Pellys. Fellow locals Fake Flowers and Peach State open the show. Doors open at 8 p.m. Admission is $5. All ages. Safe space.
More Info
Bandcamp: thecallousdaoboys.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @thecallousdaoboys
Twitter: @callousdaoboys