The Flesh World : "the Wild Animals in my Life"

Some more ex-hardcore/ punk kids have crossed over to the dark side.They come from the bands Limp Wrist, Needles and brilliant colors. The vocals are androgynous , but they get props for not trying to sounds like Ian Curtis or Siouxsie. The guitar is the balance of taunt and tender. By the second song I'm pretty sure its a chick singing. They lean more toward the Cure than any other band from that era, so in some ways it's similar to the Organ, who sounded like the Smiths with a chick singer. Here's early Cure with a chick on the mic. There is a little more Sonic Youth in the guitar to the title track. There is a noticeable "Goo" vibe to "Shaved Head". But the vocals are much sweeter than Kim Gordon.

 There songs are subtle.Almost to the point of being shoe-gazey at times. Sometimes to the point they breeze by and I zone out and have to go back and listen to it again. So it doesn't grab you by the collar and demand you listen.On "Pool Side Boys" they guitarist begins to experiment more and even busts out a feed back filled solo or sorts. They use a lot of restraint and don't descend into punk rock until one of the final three songs. When they do they sounds like every other band that does this sort of thing. They continue to bang it out like this on "Your Love Is Like a House" that is a better use of punk as they still retain the other sounds from earlier in the album, but they just step on the gas with them.They stick to their guns with the punk thing and drag it out into the closing song. I think iam being generous to round this up to an 8, but they get points for being original and at least taking for odd places. The punk stuff I am still unsure about as most other bands are going more of that route they are bringing a little more fuzzed out sound to it though here. This is being released on Iron Lung Records.