Is it too early to start our best of 2013 list? With eleven months left to go, I have a feeling that it's going to be hard to top JOHNS new cassette release, House of Wrongheads. Recorded at Mammoth Recording Studio here in Buffalo, House of Wrongheads is a six song onslaught of convoluted dark-pop, angular garage rock, and perfectly arranged dissonance. It doesn't bear much similarity to anything I've ever heard before - the best part of it all, it's all still very listenable.
HoW kicks off with a track that will surely make our top 20 local songs of the year - the incredible "Worm Wall." Eerie harmonies lead into urgently strummed guitar lines and a fuzzy keyboard. Normally, this is the point where I start to get turned off by bands who try to work some unlistenable dissonance into their songs, but that isn't the case with JOHNS. "Worm Wall" kills it for two minutes until the band slams onto a single chord... and then they somehow continue to kill it for another minute using that single, repeating chord. Besides some gained intensity in the drums and some swirling static in the background, that's all this song needed. They end the track with some tribal-influenced drumming. It's funky, it's ugly, it's catchy, it's unique. Hands down, this song is close to (if not) perfect.
The next song, "No One's Watching" is an ode to being mediocre. I should clarify - the song itself isn't mediocre, it just finds JOHNS exclaiming, "No one's watching, no one cares, unless you drown in style." Same goes for the most straightforward garage-rocker on the album, "WWYRT." Even for a six-song EP, JOHNS' genre is hard to classify. Either way, their music is reminiscent of post-hardcore acts like Bear vs. Shark, or even Les Savy Fav. Most of the time, we find the band taking seemingly "ugly" guitar chords, layering interesting keyboards beneath it, and formulating it all into something energetic and unique.
The next two songs, "If They Come" and the title-track are a departure from most of the rest of the EP. They have a swung, cabaret-like feel that contrasts with the darker garage rock of the rest of HoW. Like the music you'd hear at a grotesque circus or something. "House of Wrongheads" even comes off as, dare I say it, upbeat, or even happy(?!). After a blistering guitar solo and some more classic-JOHNS instrumentation, the song devolves into one of my favorite parts of the album. JOHNS compiles an army of distorted keyboard, cymbals, windchimes, glockenspiels, xylophones, and whatever other percussion you might be able to think of into a wave of ambient noise. I know I said I'm not one to appreciate a minute of unlistenable dissonance in songs, but as for "House of Wrongheads," JOHNS did it right.
JOHNS doesn't throw any curveballs in their closing song, "Never Done." Instead they close up House of Wrongheads on a strong note, delivering one last dark-garage-rock punch that lasts just over two minutes. I know it's not even February yet, but I have a feeling that you'll be hearing much more from JOHNS this year - including our best-of list before we dive head first into 2014.
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