Red Expendables
by monospace
What other bands can say they've been considered as an opening act for Nine Inch Nails, have members that have appeared in Richard Kern movies, and have had their name inspired from Star Trek? Arising from the burned-out ashes of NYC-noise rock outfit Cop Shoot Cop, The Red Expendables present their first release to an unsuspecting public.
For a little history lesson: the year is 1996 and Cop Shoot Cop is working on a new album for Interscope when lead singer #1/high-note bassist decides he wants out to start his Firewater project. The remaining members, with singer #2/low-note bassist Natz stepping up to the mic to record the vocals, rename their outfit 'The Red Expendables'...inspired by a Star Trek episode -- where you know that anytime crew members visit a strange planet, the one red-clad crewmember you've never seen before was only given a one-way ticket -- RedEx continued on, writing a new chapter where the old one left off.
Songs like 'Bellevue Girls', 'So Sincere' or 'Pallokaville' showcase not only their glitchy noise rock, heavy rumblings and layered samples, but sung with Natz hard-life / hard-drinking swagger they emulate the seedy belly and backroom bars these guys are all too familiar. Is there such a thing as Industrial Swing? If there is, then it starts with the first factory-rific riffing of the opening samples of 'Room' and goes on to explode at the screaming chorus of 'there's no more room in here...' -- and it SOUNDS like there's no more room for the music in your head. 'Downtime' soon follows, and if rooting yourself on a barstool in a smoke-filled room is your idea of relaxing, well, you're in for a treat. Hands off the dancers though. 'One Regret' rocks out in 7/4 time with Natz basically having a musical turretts moment ("a sweatbox in Saigon"..."toss me a chickenbone and grease up mine as well...").
But it's both the chunky beautiful/ugly dreaminess of 'Zagreb' and the high-caffeine/high-octane/high-decibal playing of 'Tightrope' that provide how best to gauge this album; like 2 sides of the same coin, one can't exist without the other.
