Home Blitz: Pop Music Through Deception

I know this may sound completely cliche or incredibly obvious, but music in itself is a science. It is a process of trial and error. Most of the time, the bad ideas outweigh the good ones (as anyone who is living in city with a million shitty bands and only a handful of good ones can testify to). But sooner or later you hear that just sounds RIGHT. The concept of what is right and wrong in music is a fuzzy subject because it cannot be measured or boiled down to the almighty logic of “1+1=2”. It is purely an objective science but just because there is objectivity does not mean there are not any standards. For most people, rock n roll is nothing but a pleasant background noise that is as disposable as the gum in their mouth or the coke up their nose. As many things are, rock n roll is one of the many things taken for granted because most people either don’t know what to listen for or they are content with the forced and superficial ideas of the million shitty bands that litter your town.

But sometimes there are bands that speak so loudly that you are instantly forced to listen. Home Blitz’s Out of Phase is relentless but not in the traditional way. It throws curve balls at you constantly and it doesn’t know what it wants to be. The record’s own indecision is its strongest point (Ironic because that is usually what breaks most records). It is simply not content on being one thing (rock, power pop, punk, acid rock, country, blues, whatever). It takes what it needs and goes with it, without any regard to what the “right way” of doing things is. Deception is another key sonic element in Out of Phase. Any listener who is used to an album having a set style or a certain air of predictability would not even dream that a song like “Two Steps” could follow the noisy racket of “Nest of Vipers”. Both songs by themselves are sneaky little fuckers, with “Vipers” ending its chaos with a somber little piano number and “Two Steps” beginning with a shaky Beef Heart-like blues riff before launching into full blown pop glory. “Don’t Talk to Me”, the album’s most straight ahead song, is a bitter and cynical number. At first, he thanks you for treating him like a fucking human being and then he gives you an earful of his problems. Not only does he have a laundry list of problems, but he refuses to do anythingabout them. What a way to piss someone off and what a way to be a snot nose brat. Surprisingly, in spite of “Don’t Talk to Me’s” complaining, it doesn’t really bother me that much. To me it felt like I was having a drunken conversation with a good friend who had a bad week instead of some fuckwad like Connor Oberst and his “feelings”. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a world of difference.

Another reason Out of Phase clicks so easily is that the singer’s voice is honest if not pedestrian. He may not have golden pipes but he seems to tell the truth when so many bands lie out their ass. Christ, sometimes I have hard time believing what so many bands say. Bands are like Thee Oh Sees and King Khan have made careers with bullshit like that. Don’t get me wrong, I think they get the job done but it can be very transparent at times. When I listen to Home Blitz, I get the same feeling when I’m listening to Ron House; both of them tell it like it is without any sort rosy view. Sure they be melodramatic at times but then again they are just human.

Just as we are getting used to the soap box style of “Don’t Talk to Me”, Home Blitz gets bored with that and moves on the next thing. I swear to God, whoever wrote these songs and decided their sequence has one of thee worst cases of ADHD I’ve ever seen. Now, our ears are fixated upon the blown out rocker “Other Side of The Street”, which offers no smooth transition from the last song. But of course this only adds to the album’s charm because it has no interest in giving you anything conventionally logical. Besides, whenever rock ‘n roll bands attempt to cram gratuitous amounts of logic into their music, you get the Mars Volta or even worse, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. Out of Phase presses on with the poppy twang of “Route 18”, a song that starts strong and gradually but beautifully falls apart. “World War III” spells out Out of Phase’s whole philosophy by urging that“you gotta do things people don’t think you’re gonna do” to the beat of a steady riff. Come to think of it, the whole album is a series of steady rock riffs whose sole purpose is to stabilize all of the random and spontaneous ideas that are presented. Plus, they do a believable Cock Sparrer cover and really make it their own.

Although there are many great songs on this gem, the one that really sticks out in my mind is “A Different Touch”, and when I says it sticks out, I mean it sticks out like a sore thumb. It really is the bastard child of this album, which in itself is a pretty hilarious statement to say when the whole thing is a cut and paste affair. The whole song is a slow and ugly little thing. It sounds like if Blue Cheer or Sabbath did one hundred times the acid they did and embraced the possibilities of sub par amplifiers. It sounds like the song every “shitgaze” band was trying to do two years but got lost in their own pretensions and fuzz. To make this simple; I really like this song. I don’t exactly know why though. Its not that entirely catchy and the riff isn’t that amazing. I cannot put my finger on it. The best conclusion I can come to is the “tone” of the song, and when I mean tone, I am talking about how it is said. For example, I could walk up to someone and say “You fucker!!!” in a joking tone and they would know that I am being amicable instead of hostile. How you say something can drastically change the meaning of the said thing. What makes “A Different Touch” my favorite song on Out of Phase isn’t the music or the lyrics but rather how it is being played to me. Small details like that can create something extraordinary from something basic.

If this were any other band or any other record, I am not sure they could get away with half the shit this record does. But in Home Blitz’s case none of that stuff matters in the first place because everything on this album WORKS. At a time when so many bands are looking for the pop edge and let their rock edge get dull, Home Blitz brings you the goods. All of New York and San Francisco need to hear this album because synth music is dead, irony is even more dead, and you fucks need to learn to use a guitar properly again.