Thee Something Brothers

The Black Box

Ten tracks of fuzzed-out rock'n'roll kick-assery for $10.

GET IT, LOW LIFES.



"As subtle as a brick through a window, Chattanooga's Thee Something Brothers play no-nonesense raw rock with a blunt attitude and lyrics to match. Their debut album The Black Box is full of blistering two-minute tracks, each of which does its business and then gets out of the way for the next song. The group was formed by guitarist Russel Ariks and Ken Welch, formerly of Tom Grey's Dream, with a rhythm section of bassist Britton Ware and drummer Robert Parker, previously in Mister Grits. The key tenets of the band seem to be: Keep things simple, concentrate on style, not structure, and push each song to increase its sonic density until it can't hold any more."



"The quartet is fully aware of its primitive rock precursors, copping its "Thee" from the garage band Thee Headcoats and at times channeling the early singles of the Damned. The forthright come-on of "Sleep With Me" is a furious Stooges tribute, down to the descending guitar chord progression and one-note pian part borrowed from "I Wanna Be Your Dog." The album employs a pointedly non-mainstream mixing style, with the vocals just loud enough to be heard; the instruments seem to be fighting for attention, with the guitars usually winning. It's a release that never lets up, from the urgent pulling and flailing wah guitar of "Dead Weight" to the in-the-red garage-punk stomper "Audrey II." The Black Box is loud, dumb, and a helluva lot of fun, and sometimes that's exactly what you want out of a rock album."



~Ernie Paik, The Pulse