by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Sometime last year, amid the announcement of mclusky’s first US tour in eighteen years, the band slipped the news that they were recording a new album into the finer print. Understandably, it’s hard for some folks to be excited about two things at once, but it felt pretty monumental, even if Andrew “Falco” Falkous did his best to downplay it be saying it “may be released, if they decide it is good enough.” If the band were planning to record once again at Chicago’s Electrical Audio, it would seem that fate, throat issues, and inner ear problems had other plans for the trio, now comprised of Falco, Jack Egglestone, and The St. Pierre Snake Invasion’s Damien Sayell (who has been playing with mclusky* since the band reformed). They had to postpone and eventually cancel the remaining dates of the tour, but at some point in the year since, mclusky got around to recording a few songs.
With ear issues seemingly on the mend (and a spiffy set of headphones for live shows), it would seem Falco and mclusky are ready to reconvene their second coming, with dates in Australia and the promise of the US tour to come. Which brings us to those few new songs, great songs at that, released as a “double A-side” single, with subsequent “double B-sides” to boot, delivered via Bandcamp in order to raise money for international touring and hefty visa costs. To poo-poo just how much the band can make on a four song digital EP would be to gravely underestimate the significance of new mclusky music, the first in nineteen years.
In the case of mclusky, their return is a bit different than your standard “reunion”. Falco’s presence and acerbic output, at least for loyal listeners, has never waned in the years since the unceremonious dissolution of the beloved band. The past nineteen years have been peppered with a dozen records from Future of The Left and Christian Fitness, each a timely reminder that brilliance and depravity go best hand-in-hand. While collaborating with other musicians (primarily Julia Ruzicka, among others), the core of Falco and Egglestone has forever stayed in-tact, their signature blend of wit, piss-takes, and dynamic pummeling force astounding in any shape. So what’s the difference between all these projects? The bass player… we suppose (but also synths, reliance on hooks, and the public’s general expectations).
While their latest EP probably wasn’t intended for deep scrutiny, hence the “double A-side” designation vs ever actually calling it an EP, the songs serve as a reminder that mclusky’s brand of magic resides somewhere between noise rock and art punk, their songs insistent and abrasive, usually with needling riffs and dense but dexterous low end. Everything buzzes, scrapes, and peels away at our better sense of judgement, leaving songs that are immersed in ugliness that sounds delightfully catchy. Falco’s writing is always embedded with hooks, in both his all too clever and comical lyrics and in the pounding chaos of his riffs. Everything sticks like super glue in your mind, the tracks often whipping into a frenzied density, the rawness matched with shrewd lyrics that are rarely forth right, their intelligence wrapped together with Falco’s unique sense of punchy humor.
From the distorted onset of “The Unpopular Parts of a Pig,” we learn that mclusky won’t be mellowing anytime soon, the edges as rusty and jarring as they ever were. The song rips and stalls with a great sense of detachment, Falco’s riffs cutting in and out while Egglestone lays into the snare, the stampede moving in all directions. Lyrically, we’re given giddy lines about prophesied death, the lack of enjoyment that results from picking blood from hair, and a couple of those signature mclusky unintelligible yelps that sound so fun and unhinged live. “The Digger You Deep” on the other hand takes a deviant blues structure to task, burning with low end thud and a corrosive incessant nature to the guitars. It’s melodic yet caustic in that innovative way that we’ve come to expect from mclusky, a song that feels like a reminder to set your expectations low, if you’re to have any expectations at all. Then again, perhaps I’m missing the point. It wouldn’t be the first time.
The “B-side,” as it were, consists of “Fan Leaning Difficulties” and “That Was My Brain on Elves,” the former a barn burner that hits like a torrential downpour, while the later sounds like a classic mclusky “ballad”. Both songs feel firmly tongue-in-cheek, punching against the “common decency” we hear so much about. With Sayell’s cavernous bass grinding open the introduction on “Fan Leaning Difficulties,” they keep this one teetering on the edge, the song stumbling between harsh dissonance and animated vocals. Falco is in fine form as always, howling wisdom such as “be ever ready with a helpful joke at funerals” and reminding us all to “keep writing letters to the queen although she died last summer”. The EP closes with the gentle but no less immediate “That Was My Brain on Elves,” a sarcastic and surrealist lament on capitalism and over consumption, a lullaby drawn between lines like “I understood finally that animals have feelings, but not in way they can monetize”.
For the faithful, it can be hard at times to differentiate what exactly sets a mclusky song apart from a Future of the Left or Christian Fitness song (aside from personnel), but it also doesn’t matter… that’s why they’re “the faithful”. For the “casual” fan however, this is reason to pay attention, because mclusky is important. So, the time has come to pay attention. Pick up a copy of the EP and help the band get back over to the States to finish what they started, tour, album, et al.