Search - yokoDeathray :: Planet Punk Bitch

Here's a yokoDeathray recipe.

Leslie | London, UK | 01/20/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In a blender, combine: Led Zeppelin, Iggy Pop, Smashing Pumpkins, Cheap Trick, Black Crowes, PJ Harvey, RHCP, Nirvana, Radiohead, Rolling Stones, and a pinch of Danzig.



Pour in a gallon of whatever whisky's on sale, and drop in a huge chronic blunt, a dose of MDMA, two habanero chilis, four drops of animal musk, and six drops of demon sweat (if you can get it); and hit the 'puree' button.



I seriously can't stop listening to this record. CAN'T. STOP. Its combination of aggression, melancholy, and hummable melodies is totally addictive.



Lyrically yokoDeathray is not afraid to voice your most embarrassing pathetic thoughts ("My karma's in the toilet and my inner child's bored / I fell down in the kitchen and it hurt less than before" or "I am never gonna change, I can only rearrange / I can't remember anything but my name"), and your most megalomanical ones as well ("I'm a hell-bound honey with 2 bad eyes / Drinking Maker's Mark out of a skull / and I'm smoking little pieces of my brain" or "I can't explain it / I think I might be Satan / or Jesus, I can't decide"). These guys are f-ed up and crazy and sad and ecstatic and high on their own genius, and it's all there lyrically.



The musicianship is outstanding as well. The drums and bass are tighter than a virgin, and can be relentless or hypnotic, and sometimes both. Davoid is a shockingly good rhythm guitarist, the way Keith Richards or Rich Robinson is, the kind of rhythm guitar playing that is an art form but could escape your notice because its effortless sound is the biggest part of its charm. And I don't even know what to say about the vocals - they're not classically perfect, although they're musical, they're in tune and all - but mainly, they have this incredible raw genuine appeal. Love love love.



The record spans a lot of styles and moods, which is part of why I can't seem to get it out of my Discman, it never bores me. But somehow there's a cohesiveness to the diversity. To write a tune so Beatlesque, it's practically lawsuit-worthy, and then to give it lyrics like "I've had 52 erections just for you..." is their deepest talent, to be able to make that honestly mesh, to make it sweet, even. Another gem like this is "A Little Wave", that starts out as a lovely summery bossa nova song - albeit with an underlying tension that one can't quite put a finger on - and then transitions into a growling head-banging manifesto that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up - and then back again to the bossa nova in a way that just makes me say "well, of course, of course this is where we are again, just right."



I swear that I feel better-looking when I listen to yokoDeathray. There's an extra swing in my walk, and my hair bounces a little more, and I want to turn it up loud enough so the whole world can hear it and feel sexy.



If you pass this record up, do so at your own peril."