Spray Paint "Burn Barrel" || 'Feel The Clamps' [Goner Records] by Goner Records

128GONE
Spray Paint FEEL THE CLAMPS
Out June 3, 2016

2015's quick succession of two full-length albums by Austin, TX, trio Spray Paint - 'Punters On A Barge' in June on Australia’s Homeless Records followed by 'Dopers' via Austin's Monofonus Press – showed the band repeatedly visiting some proverbial “next level” relative to the steady developmental trajectory framed by their preceding 2012 – 2014 arrival and vision-quest phase (itself a three album and three 7” chunk of catalog not appropriate for dismissal). At the risk of corniness in conveying the sterling truth, the brand new 'Feel the Clamps' (Spray Paint’s sixth full-length in the space of 3.5 years and first for Goner Records) could be considered to represent drummer Chris Stephenson, guitarist Cory Plump and other guitarist George Dishner arriving at a “next-level”, but next after what? They appear to have skipped a few.

Who knows what this really is. To call any band’s music “post-punk” has a descriptive clarity akin to stating, “This band makes music.” Spray Paint have now shed a great deal of previously identifiable present and past influences to reinvent their own modern version of American noise-rock. The band’s most signifying lift from yore has always been guitars that recall Sonic Youth’s 1983 – 1986 attempt to throw a No-Wave after party. On 'Feel the Clamps', it’s as if Spray Paint are saying to the forefathers in question, “We’re going to do THIS with those sheets of down-stabbed sound and put them to much better use.”

There couldn’t be a better choice for a preemptive warning shot than “Burn Barrel”, a perfect amalgam of the preconception-shattering refinements that is 'Feel the Clamps'. A tightly-wound rhythmic underpinning of building tension interspersed with repeated dynamic upshifts as everyone locks together and fills spaces that shouldn’t be there with an instrumental critical mass as drums interlock with guitar stabs, riffs, and throbs, reaching what could be a new summit of density and intensity for this band. “Burn Barrel” appears to be a lyrical string of scenes that tell a disjointed, nonlinear narrative of unsavory social observation (disclaimer: this is speculation), and this exemplifies Spray Paint’s refreshing embracement of thematic nuance and implied front page BAD news that’s much creepier and impactful than beating one over the head with depravity.

Because Spray Paint’s musical trajectory has followed a linear path of development and inspiration, it would be remiss to call 'Feel the Clamps' the band’s “definitive” document because it only “defines” where the band is at this stage and the impressive distance between right now and the trio’s genesis moment less than five years ago. Spray Paint is hyper-prolific because these guys know they have something that needs to stay up in the world’s grill. A rapid-fire output is sometimes confused with “worth a shit”. You know why the world is choked with aggressively mediocre music? Because the aggressively mediocre are really, really prolific and have amazing work ethics. But Spray Paint is no relation to the stylistic transients who couch-surf sub genres in what should be a new movement coined as “try-too-hardcore”, as they have been pushed along a linear path of inspiration that suggest there won’t even be a language to describe what the trio is making five years from now. 'Feel the Clamps' will be the Spray Paint album that clears the fence of any remaining solitary butts and if not, it’s recommended said body part be checked for its owner’s head. (Andrew Earles, 2016)

FEEL THE CLAMPS Tracklist
01 Don't Get Sick
02 Burn Barrel
03 ATXHC (Dangly Earring)
04 Shoveling
05 Country Thumbs
06 Styrofoam Garbage
07 Feel the Clamps
08 Brat Beater
09 Bin Man Dreams
10 Heaps of Ice
11 George Finally Shows Up

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