Caterwauled in a throat-curdling, high-ranged shout-speak-spew, the Counter-Elites aren’t so much trying to piss you off with their minute-long tantrums of slightly melodious bass-bulged, drum-pulverizing declarations – they’re actually trying to get you to consider why you might feel, deep down, so pissed off by a range of issues – from corrupt politicians, to overreaching surveillance, to corporate malfeasance, to…well…Dr. Strangelove-ian bureaucrats blindly driving the gas-guzzling SUV of our nation down the road to WWIII. What’s the proper reaction? Maybe an 18-second song is enough to get you pondering…if your ears can bend through the blades of this inherently aggressive shred-fest of a debut full-length. (The first 25 tracks blur by in as many minutes.) Yet somehow, they’re clearly a thoughtful pair of likely pop-minded musicians, just donning the Kick-Ass type antihero costumes of hardcore-heralding punk provocateurs, giving it a kind of a quaint They Might Be Giants-ish charm.
Here’s one of their long songs:
This article appears in Sep 4-10, 2013.
