Couch Slut : "You Could Do it Tonight"

This New York band plays a beautifully depraved style of noise rock, that is dark and burly. The darkness comes from the honest lyrics that provide a commentary on human filth in the big city. The sonic equivalent to drinking booze out of an ashtray.  Like much of the noise rock genre at its heart is punk rock, it's just played with a more calculated recklessness.  The Sonic Youth influences feel like it's from the "Goo" era, it provides a more rock swagger to "Wilkinson's Sword". The songs seem to reflect themes of sexual assault, and the toxic perspectives such things give root to like engaging in self-harm as a coping strategy. This is a love song to the miniature scalpels she used to cut herself in church. 

The drummer is clearly into metal as they are not afraid to employ double bass. Black Metal is also an influence in the tremolo-picked guitar that often haunts the background of these songs. "The Donkey" carries a deliberate stomp and lyrics exclaimed in a more spoken narrative fashion. The guitars sound like they are falling apart around them as they are abused by the pounding. "Presidental Welcome" is more of an odd interlude. "Energy Crystals for Healing" is more pummelling in its intentions toward your ears. The blackened punk vibes continue on as the undercurrent. "Downhill Racer" exudes even more angst as it pounds more relentlessly, almost burying the song's nuance in its wake. 

When they relinquish any restraints and just pound their instruments, they also lose some of the finer points of their songwriting that made them effective. "the Weaversville Home For Boys" finds them return to storytelling. This time it is done with a brooding tension. This song touches on the heavier side of grunge closer to the zip code of the Melvins. Despite getting too rowdy for it's own good when viewed in the context of punk rock, this album is pretty effective, and their sense of storytelling gives them their own identity apart from the rrroit girl rock of the 90s this evolved from. Taking all this into consideration I will give it a 9. This is being released on Brutal Panda. 

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