Lo-fidelity, crudely recorded noisy rock is no longer the sound-of-necessity it was 15 or 20 years ago; nowadays, messiness has become its own aesthetic vision, much to the delight of those young enough to find nuisance exciting or old enough to regard the Swell Maps and Flying Nun records as formative texts. Portland's Eat Skull (featuring ex-members of the much-weirder Hospitals) is among the skuzzier of these acts, and their debut album is what it must sound like to hear a brilliant pop record through a very thick wall — in the midst of a combat zone. The album begins with the abrasive “Beach Brains,” which sounds, as the title suggests, like a Beach Boys surf riddim being mangled by Bad Brains. “Ghost List” is a beach bonfire sing-along engulfed in flames, while “Dog Religion” and “Survivable Spaces” could be British Invasion pop, were it not for the heavy coats of sandpapery distortion. But Eat Skull's songs wouldn't sound right any other way. The tension and abrasiveness is what hurls the songs forward: guitars jangle loudly until they are pure noise; organs surge, as though under demonic possession; vocals are shouted until the mix is overtaken with hoarseness; and… read more »