Customer Reviews

Surgery

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4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
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The Good
A haunting, repetitive guitar riff leads you through "Come Save Us". As soon a Bobby Hecksher comes in with his vocals and cryptic lyrical content, you realize that he must have listened to The Cure a lot growing up. "It's Just Like Surgery" describes how a painful relationship can be both beneficial and painful. The driving rhythms only enhance the experience. "Angels in Heaven, Angles in Hell" comes off as a creepy love song from the fifties with it' dark tones and echoed vocals. It's about withdrawing from the real world and creating your own.

In a roundabout way, Hecksher is saying he needs to wish upon a star to escape from his current situation on "We Need Starpower". That may sound positive, but you can hear the pain and anguish is his voice. The Warlocks take an interesting look on a panic attack with "Evil Eyes Again". It either that, or facing death. Speaking of death, "Suicide Note" sums up the reasons that life's not worth living for our tortured soul. Interesting guitar tones and sounds, mixed with other progressive elements help set the mood.

The Bad
Nothing notable

The Verdict
Surgery is a sad, haunting trip into a tortured and depressed mind that would make Robert Smith of The Cure proud.

"Surgery" is The Warlocks' line drawn in the sand.

On the other side are the 12-minute jams, sprawling acoustic psych freakouts ('House of Glass' from "Rise and Fall" as a prime example) and lo-fidelity sound quality that recalled both the sleazy English 80s (Spacemen 3 et al) and the late 60s Northwest garage rock scene.

On this side are shorter bursts of muscular and decisively riff-laden shards, and a noticeable improvement in sound quality.

Few bands could pull off such a staggering transformation, and Warlocks are one of them.

Where Warlocks sounded like true 60s revivalists on "Rise and Fall" and "Phoenix" they now sound like modern bands that cite the 60s as an influence but sound more like the 80s underground, i.e. Brian Jonestown Massacre, Dandy Warhols, BRMC.

The ultra-catchy 'Just Like Surgery' steals a page from the Jesus and Mary Chain's playbook but substitutes the howling feedback with mid-fretboard power chords and an infectious lead riff. This song alone is worth the price of admission.

Producer Tom Rothrock did some tinkering and brought lead 'Lock Bobby Hecksher's pop songwriting instincts to the fore, and to fairly astounding effect.

'Gypsy Nightmare' carries some atmospheric background guitar lines behind the din and 'Angels in Heaven...' is akin to a doo-wop send-up or prom night slow dance that lifts some notes from Modest Mouse's 'Sleepwalkin.'

'Thursday's Radiation' harkens back to the sprawling/shimmering dirges of previous albums and will satiate long-time fans while providing newbies a taste of what they've missed.

Unfortunately 'The Tangent' drops an anchor into the middle of the album (and I believe it's one of a few songs Hecksher wanted to leave off the album), but it's rescued by 'Evil Eyes Again' (JAMC-styled pop), 'Above Earth' (bottom of the well slowcore) and 'Bleed Without You Babe' (slow-paced two-note blues with guitar explosions), which are notable standouts. 'Suicide Note' closes the album with one of the Warlocks' patented expansive jam sessions, though it's cut in half and a slithering bonus track closes the last five minutes of the 12-minute running time.

A few misses here ('The Tangent' and 'We Need Starpower' seem tossed off rather than fleshed out), but there are enough bullseyes here to keep your attention and prod newcomers seek out the Warlocks' outstandig earlier efforts.

The Warlocks' "Surgery" may not be the most accessible album in the world, but for what it is it's pretty good stuff. It's essentially lo-fi-ish indie rock with hard-edged guitars. Singer Bobby Hecksher is pretty likable most of the time, though on occasion he's a little questionable (see "The Tangent"). I think The Warlocks certainly have their own sound, but I would argue that it's not different or great enough to merit mass media attention. It's pretty derivative stuff with a couple relatively new ideas (see "Above Earth", especially). The production is pretty well done here. The lyrics tend to be hard to make out, but they're relatively interesting when you can hear them (they at least enhance the sound of the songs). Another good thing here is that every song on here is "good", though not necessarily hitworthy. Overall I think that hard-edged indie rock and The Warlocks fans will really like this, but I couldn't call it classic. It comes pretty darn close, though. It's still, however, highly recommended!

Highlights include:
the entire album!

I remember all the psycho-gothic drone bands of the 80's and 90's. I've got plenty of Spacemen 3, Love & rockets and Jesus and Mary Chain albums, etc. etc. I also can dig BJM and BRMC. I don't let it bother me that the Warlocks share black eyeliner with these bands. If you look around at all the reviews of this album, you may encounter alot of negative stuff about the Warlocks. Let it go. They are worth the price of admission. They trace a musical pedigree back past Velvet Underground and aren't afraid to do space doo-wop. There previous albums have sharper highs and more dangerous lows, but this album is grandiloquent. I've had it since the day it came out and I'm still listening to it every few days and I have a lot of CDs to chose from. Do yourself a favor if you like any of the bands I mentioned above. Get this one.

'Surgery' basically takes the fuzzed-out psychadelia of The Warlocks and pumps it up on steroids. Although their previous release 'The Phoenix Album' didn't stray from mind-bending stoner rock, the songs had some structure, the album was tight and cohesive. In contrast 'Surgery' focuses more on trippy repeating riffs, creating for a more sludgy, dense, amplified wall-of-sound. Just think Spacemen 3 meeting The Raveonettes, or early Stereolab meeting Jesus And Mary Chain, all with accompanying bursts of Pavement/MC5 feedback. Another comparison would be a more swirlier drugged-out Chapterhouse. But make no mistake, this is a Warlocks CD, from Bobby Hecksher's droning vocals to the thunderous double-drums, even adding a psychadelic whirlwind twist on 50's oldies. 'Surgery' continues to trip the light fantastic, but instead of with hallucinogenics, with high-voltage power.

The Good
A haunting, repetitive guitar riff leads you through "Come Save Us". As soon a Bobby Hecksher comes in with his vocals and cryptic lyrical content, you realize that he must have listened to The Cure a lot growing up. "It's Just Like Surgery" describes how a painful relationship can be both beneficial and painful. The driving rhythms only enhance the experience. "Angels in Heaven, Angles in Hell" comes off as a creepy love song from the fifties with it' dark tones and echoed vocals. It's about withdrawing from the real world and creating your own.

In a roundabout way, Hecksher is saying he needs to wish upon a star to escape from his current situation on "We Need Starpower". That may sound positive, but you can hear the pain and anguish is his voice. The Warlocks take an interesting look on a panic attack with "Evil Eyes Again". It either that, or facing death. Speaking of death, "Suicide Note" sums up the reasons that life's not worth living for our tortured soul. Interesting guitar tones and sounds, mixed with other progressive elements help set the mood.

The Bad
Nothing notable

The Verdict
Surgery is a sad, haunting trip into a tortured and depressed mind that would make Robert Smith of The Cure proud.

'Surgery' basically takes the fuzzed-out psychadelia of The Warlocks and pumps it up on steroids. Although their previous release 'The Phoenix Album' didn't stray from mind-bending stoner rock, the songs had some structure, the album was tight and cohesive. In contrast 'Surgery' focuses more on trippy repeating riffs, creating for a more sludgy, dense, amplified wall-of-sound. Just think Spacemen 3 meeting The Raveonettes, or early Stereolab meeting Jesus And Mary Chain, all with accompanying bursts of Pavement/MC5 feedback. Another comparison would be a more swirlier drugged-out Chapterhouse. But make no mistake, this is a Warlocks CD, from Bobby Hecksher's droning vocals to the thunderous double-drums, even adding a psychadelic whirlwind twist on 50's oldies. 'Surgery' continues to trip the light fantastic, but instead of with hallucinogenics, with high-voltage power.

This album has been touted as the one to hear by critics. They are probably grasping the coattails of the Brian Jonestown Massacre's related stagger onto a higher plane, so to speak, and a broader, post-"Dig" audience. I don't begrudge either band this notice, as a long-time fan. Still, when I listen to Warlocks albums, they do not greatly differ. They are more consistent than BJM and also tamer. Ex-BJMer Bobby H. and his neo-psychedelic cohorts follow here in the footsteps of Jesus & Mary Chain, more than a direct link back to the 60s pioneers.

But Bobby's voice can be painful to hear--his warbling "singing in the shower" tone does not do justice to whatever personal demons he exorcises. His delivery, admittedly very casual, lacks the personality that many other punk & psych singers conveyed despite similar limits and proudly displayed lack of training. Tracks 2 and 8 copy the chord changes (or absence thereof) of JMC so as to not even make them thoughtful limitations, so blatant and therefore lazy do these tunes sound. I was expecting, as with the Aislers Set (female-led, semi-obscure indie band from San Francisco marrying girl-group style to Joy Division's ambiance), a Ronettes-meet-the-Velvets coupling from what I had heard before listening to this CD, but I don't hear progression from their previous albums on Surgery.

This review is not meant to sound as overly negative as it may. If you have never heard this band, this is a good start. There's nothing here to turn off fans of the darker, neo-psych meets indie gloom cadre. But I found my attention wandering, and preferred it when the longer tracks departed from vocal terrain to explore--as in their earlier song "Jam of the Warlocks" on their self-titled e.p.--more of a space-rock, acid-tinged exploration. The songs here are too brief to allow high takeoff into such expansive realms, where the band's core of inspiration has in the past been more directly infused into their own grooves. I hope that future releases by this group combine their efficient craftsmanship with more imagination.