Giddy Motors Do Easy

[FatCat; 2006]

Rating: 3/5

Styles: grindcore, spaz, cock rock, arena alt.
Others: June of ‘44, Jesus Lizard, Cherubs, Helmet, Tomahawk, Nirvana

Reviews have hang-ups -- and you must listen! Lately, for me, it's been bringing up other bands in reviews. But this time I absolutely have to. Do Easy has the sound of a band that wants to cut spiky math swathes across sweaty, flapping-in-the-jet-stream rock.
Although, near as I can tell, lead singer Gaverick de Vis is singing about something else. I think of Giddy Motors as being weight-lifting music for indie kids, but that's neither here nor there. The singing is alternately bracing in a Yow fashion and irritating with a shouty jock-rock sense of repetition. At certain times it comes dangerously close to that Audioslave type of rawk holler.

The more you listen to this, the more you'll find yourself going, "This is really good," even as you recognize sounds and tropes that are at odds with your own tastes. This is duly rewarded with the closing tracks. With "Endgame," you get a fine low-key blues progression with a moaning electric guitar sweeping in sheets above the smoke until it clears half-way in and the ground rushes toward you. "Dot Dot Dot" is what happens when you hit the ground: intense glaring white and dead black silence at varying intervals, punctuated with highly concentrated crimson blasts of heat.

But the rest honestly has me wondering what all the hype's about. They sound like a catch-all post-rock tribute band made pop -- no matter how tight the trio plays together. One will twitch and nod in appreciation, but Giddy Motors are really just a band that would be fun live, while coming off rather trite too often on this record. It's potent stuff to be sure, and pulls off some rather coolly manic moments here and there -- but it's really just this side of completely forgettable.

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