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http://www.senbaltimore.com/blogs/agt/agt_reviews/hex-screwneedle-gun-split-double-cdr.shtmlHex Screw/Needle Gun Split Double CDR
An instant collector's item from Terra Firma Records.
Released in May in an ultra-limited edition of 50 hand-numbered split double CD-Rs (our review copy is 32/50), Hex Screw (www.myspace.com/hexscrew) and Needle Gun's (www.myspace.com/wedontneednourl) dual effort is apparently already sold out. And in a tragic set of circumstances, it's just making its way to the top of the review heap here at AGT.
Because local bands have such a tough time getting exposure as it is, it just seems unfair to pan a record just because one person's "critical" taste hears a recording and can't bear it. However, the adage goes that "any press is good press" and this review goes 50/50 down the middle. Don't read that as meaning this reviewer didn't like this split release, quite the contrary: it just took a while to sink in. And, in a broad generalization of 99% of the music-listening public, the patience just isn't with the populace such that they will be willing to put forth the effort.
Hex Screw has called it quits since the release of this split album, so for the other 49 kids out there with copies of their own, this might become a jewel of their local music collection. The album is pretty darn good. There is a bizarre, incongruous sense of melody throughout the six tracks (track seven is one of those album ending "filler" doses), and the recording runs almost seamlessly from one track to the next. Skipping out on vocals like post-metal and jittering off with sharps and sevenths, Hex Screw's half of this split owns. Tracks five and six (there are no ID3 tags embedded in the disc, but MySpace saves the day: "Surface Unit" and "Sprouting A Bulb") blew this writer away. I'd put these two songs next to most of what I've heard out of this town this year and dare them to square off.
Needle Gun might be on pace with Dan Deacon-ites, though that may be a stretch. This disc is rife with what one can only assume are uncleared samples (watch out, here comes the RIAA) and rudimentary plucks and spliced tape loops. Until about halfway through, I was sure someone was standing behind the stereo with a camera waiting to pop out and catch me for the Baltimore version of Punk'd (is that show still on?), but then it hit me: this is more a performance piece. Sort of like the difference between a Hollywood picture and art-house theater, Needle Gun is probably a dish best served live. This odd pairing of the experimental and the proggy makes like putting a little league shortstop in the six-hole at Camden Yards, at least to this reviewer's ears. That said, Needle Gun have a home in this town that loves the quirky underdog more than any other city in America.