Wax Fang - Dawn Of The Dead Of The Night Of The Hunter

It is the nature of progressive rock to be very experimental. It is also only natural to be highly psychedelic. Musicians have been creating what we consider progressive rock for over a half century now which raises the question, how do bands continue to be “progressive” in rock and roll. The best advise I could give would be, embrace the strange.

Wax Fang is a strange band. I have been listening to them a lot for the past several years and somehow, they continue to surprise me. They are a perfect blend of experimental, psychedelic and strange.

Effectively a two man group, Wax Fang hail from Kentucky, Scott Carney performs lead vocals, guitar, keyboard, piano and others instruments, meanwhile Jacob Heustis plays the bass and keyboards and also provides the backing vocals. They used to have a drummer named Kevin Ratterman. Wax Fang have been making music since 2005 but their popularity surged significantly when they had a successful tour with fellow Kentuckians My Morning Jacket, followed by a very interesting appearance on American Dad.

I would like to tell you that I liked Wax Fang before they were cool, but I would be lying, I discovered Wax Fang through American Dad. I do not watch American Dad regularly but my favorite episode is the strange space rock opera that was “Lost in Space,” where… well it was strange. There is a scene where the aliens probe Jeff’s mind to see his memories of Hailey, and what we see is a not true love, and it is done as a sort of music video for Wax Fang’s song “Majestic.”

Majestic on American Dad:

I had thought about doing a review on “Majestic” but I failed to strike while the iron was hot. That episode of American Dad aired four years ago (2013), also “La La Land” the album that houses the song “Majestic” came out ten years ago (2007). No mater how I view it, I am late to this party. “Majestic” is a great song, and I think a lot of people know that without me writing anything about it. However, despite their recent surge in notoriety, Wax Fang remains a cult band, most of their work is unknown, and they have songs other than “Majestic.”

With a title like “Dawn Of The Dead Of The Night Of The Hunter” it is only natural I would be take notice. “Dawn Of The Dead Of The Night Of The Hunter” is a long title for a song, but I knew immediately the references at hand, Wax Fang had combined the title of two famous movies, “Dawn of The Dead” and “The Night of the Hunter.” “Dawn of The Dead” 1978 is George A. Romero’s second installment in his zombie movies, and in my opinion the best one. “The Night of The Hunter” 1955 is a classic film about a religious conman terrorizing a poor family after serving time with the condemned father who confessed to hiding ten thousand stolen dollars. The music video contains clips from both movies as well cuts from 1974’s “Deathdream,” which is about family wishing their son home from Vietnam after he has been killed, and he shows up as a vampire, or something, it is not entirely clear, the movie is pretty ambiguous.

The visuals created by the combination of these three movies are rather memorizing, and the video attached I found to be very enjoyable, regardless if you have seen any of the films in question or not. There are a lot of fan made videos online, a stupid quantity really, so I naturally assumed that is exactly what the video attached in this blogpost for “Dawn Of The Dead Of The Night Of The Hunter.” To my surprise that is the official music video. I knew George A. Romero never copyrighted any of this works, which made him significantly less wealthy and also kind of a hero, and I guess the other two films are also in the public domain. I would say it was clever to do such a thing, Wax Fang using clips from, presumably movies they really enjoy, to make a music video that are not protected properties, but it actually speaks to another side of the band, they are a humble bunch. I have no idea what Heustis and Ratterman look like, they are perfectly content to let their music to the talking for them, and instead of a focus on the two musicians we get an interesting art piece combing a great song and three films.

I went and watch “Deathdream” because of this video, and had I not seen the other two films before I surely would have been inspired to seek them out too.

Wax Fang does not follow convention when it comes to song writing. Their lyrics are choppy and pacing is deliberately erratic, there is a blend of short and long sentences making up the content, and yet it works. It is intentionally jarring, the shorter sentences have a deeper impact by the longer presence they hold.

There is an added element of strangeness in Wax Fang songs, for they are very experimental in all things.

“Come to get you,
They’re crawling out of mirrors, into your rooms,
They walk out of the shadows,
Nothing you can do,
Don’t bother trying to hide ‘cause, they’re gonna find you.
It’s just a matter of when.

And when they do, they’ll take you by the arms and tear you in two,
Your spirit from your body,
They’ll make you choose, which one you get to keep and which one you lose,
'Fore you make your decision, listen here.”

I am unsure if the lyrics are meant to be literal and describing some sort of demons ripping the souls out of people, or if it is entirely metaphorical about society forcing to choose to artistic or productive. Will you give up your creative soul or your needed body? There is a lot to take in. The first few listens is was expecting some talk of zombies or conmen, but I suspect the name is more tribute than anything else. Given the lack of identifiable connection between the three films and the song’s lyrical content, and also the vast possibilities for interpretation of those said lyrics, it could be believed that “Dawn Of The Dead Of The Night Of The Hunter” is an embrace of the nonsensical, but I do not believe that. I have not pieced together exactly what this song is about, or what the title has to do with anything, but I think something very deep is being sung about here, and I look forward to figuring it out, or someone commenting below.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves

The Thermals - Here's Your Future

The Thermals are a hip trendy band out of Portland Oregon. I have heard them described as an indie rock band and also a punk rock band, those two styles are very different from one another, and yet weirdly The Thermals could be argued as either one. When I first heard them, I thought the Thermals were best described as a modern punk rock band, one of those soft pop punk bands, you know the type, but I must admit there is an indie influence present. Whatever, all these subgenres are getting hard to keep up with anyway, I guess The Thermals are an indie punk band, and no, I am not sure how they pulled that off.

With a quick listen, The Thermals would not necessarily seem like the sort of band I would get into, what with their somewhat nerdy, somewhat hipster ways, but here we are now, talking about them.

The Thermals

The Thermals is a three-piece band, fronted by Hutch Harris on lead guitar and lead vocals, and his now wife, Kathy Foster who plays bass and does the backing vocals; these two are effectively The Thermals, as they have gone through a few drummers at this point. I like Hutch and Kathy, while I am still learning about who and what they are, they seem really nice, and also, I like their music.

I first discovered The Thermals in November of 2012. I remember the date because I published a Music In Review called “27 Songs about the End of the World” which included The Thermals’ “Here’s Your Future.” You can read that review here: http://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.ca/2012/11/27-songs-about-end-of-world.html

At the time, I had never heard of The Thermals before, but I really like “Here’s Your Future” it had great energy, and I liked the prophetic doom of the chorus “here’s your future.”

Since that time, youtube.com has consistently recommended The Thermals to me, surely because I have listened to “Here’s Your Future” so many times on that platform. In that time, I have grown to be very fond of other Thermals’ songs like “Returning to the Fold” and “Never Listen to Me.” I have listened to many of their albums and live performances but my enjoyment seems to be primarily linked to their 2006 album “The Body, the Blood, the Machine.” Despite everything I have heard and learned to love by The Thermals, nothing compares to that first love, nothing is quite as great as “Here’s Your Future.”

As part of “27 Songs about the End of the World,” “Here’s Your Future” is indeed about the world’s end, specifically it is about biblical Armageddon.

“God reached his hand down from the sky,
He flooded the land then he set it on fire.
He said, ‘Fear me again. Know I'm your father.
Remember that no one can breathe underwater.’
So bend your knees and bow your heads.
Save your babies, here's your future.”

This interpretation of god is pretty damn brutal, and thus fairly accurate to the old testament. Rarely we see god presented in such open harshness, not only is he threatening his audience, but he is threatening their children, even more than that he is promising an eternity of abuse, “here’s your future.”

From that dramatic opening verse, we break into Noah’s flood:

“God reached his hand down from the sky,
God asked Noah if he wanted to die,
He said ‘No sir,
Oh, no, sir.’
God said, ‘Here's your future.
It's going rain.’

So, we're packing our things,
We're building a boat.
We're going create the new master race,
Cause we're so pure.
Oh, Lord, we're so pure.
So here's your future.”

Then we discuss Jesus:

“God told his son, ‘It's time to come home,
I promise you won't have to die all alone.
I need you to pay for the sins I create.’
His son said, ‘I will, but Dad, I'm afraid.’"

There is a rather obvious message in this song that is critical of the Christian god. It is very difficult, even for the staunchest apologists, to ignore the cruel and destructive nature of god’s actions in the original white light faith text. Those stories took place in savage times, full of violence and death, so we should expect no less from a god representing spirituality and morality of that era. Still, few, present god in such a linearly frightful way as The Thermals have here. The menace is not only extreme and immediate, but immortal, the shouting of “here’s your future” is of severe significance because it implies that this nightmare is continuous, forever, and given that god is the one enforcing this never-ending tragedy, we are powerless to stop it.

Other songs by The Thermals come across almost positive towards Christianity, and this seemed to somewhat conflict with the content of “Here’s Your Future,” but I come to believe the more upbeat and encouraging religious moments in The Thermals repertoire are mostly sarcastic, but also reflective of a rather neutral perspective on the topic. I do not believe Hutch and Kathy hate religion or Christianity, I suspect they have a passing fondness for it, but are ultimately critical agonistics, and that is why songs like “Here’s Your Future” and “Returning to the Fold” can both exist on the same album.

I thoroughly enjoy a good critical bashing of religion, but agnostic subtexts had nothing to do with my initial love for The Thermals or “Here’s Your Future.” As I said, the energy and pace of “Here’s You Future” is fantastic, the dread of a fearful future shouted at us by Harris with such unrelenting aggression makes for a very intense and powerful song of doom, and the end of the world.

Back in 2012 I knew one day I would be writing this review and promoting this song. “Here’s Your Future” got it’s hooks deep into me all those years ago and never let go. It is probably one of the best songs of this decade that I have discovered.

- King of Braves