Recumbents

When one thinks of the state of Colorado, many images come to mind. Skiing, rock climbing, and any other type of nature type activities. One also thinks of film festivals and Robert Redford. One, however, does not think of abrasive, noisy, punk influenced underground rock. Even Jello Biafra had to move to San Francisco to get the Dead Kennedys going.
Well, things have obviously changed. Meet Recumbents. Their name is defined in the dictionary as: 1. lying down; reclining; leaning; 2:inactive; idle 3 :Zoology,Botany. noting a part that leans or reposes upon its surface of origin-adjective 4:a recumbent person, animal, or plant etc.-noun.
When looking at the various definitions for this word, one repeatedly encounters the idea of "non-uprightness", a sort of debilitated type of existence, inertia, etc...
This is a perfect example of a bands' name suiting the sonic image they project. There is a sense of alienation, unease and futility. In an email exchange prior to this attempt at exposition, the Swedish group Brainbombs was listed as an influence. This is felt to be only partially accurate. There is the similiarity of riff mono-mania at work here, of driving the same guitar part into your brain. But whereas the Brainbombs are infamous for their highly x-rated and down right nasty lyrical exhibitions backed by a feeling of drug induced schizophrenia, the Recumbents appear more suicidal. This is not a put down but more an attempt at poetic interpretation.
Their musical exhortations are definitely American. There is a certain understanding American bands seem to have. Think of the MC5, think of Iggy and the Stooges, Mars, DNA, etc....This is not to say that other countries do not produce good rock bands. This is obviously not so. But other countries have their own types and ways of rocking out. What is being presented here is the "American" rock flavor.
Recumbents are a two piece gender combination. To quote from The Holy Dedd Foxx: "I play guitar... sing the dude parts... She (Kitty Genovese) plays drums (which you mostly can't hear...) makes some noise, and sings the girl parts. Live, she sometimes also plays a crappy casio keyboard and some back up guitar." Also according to The Foxx, the fact that the other half of the band is a woman is "pretty damned exciting."
In short, they rock. For a two piece they accomplish a lot, even in the limited environment of a 3-song myspace demo. There was, reportedly, an actual hard release that was felt to be out of line with the bands "studio intentions" and so quickly ignored by the band. The player has been active since last October.
They excel at stomach-churning riffs, especially the Harshest Buzz, with its unwinding spring quality, and endless seasickness, entropy and self-loathing. We actually felt somewhat nauseous for a moment and conveyed this info to the band, which induced much mirthfulness and merry-making into the proceedings. Oh, how we laughed.

Check 'em out at www.myspace.com/recumbents