Kepone
"Skin" CD (Quarterstick)
Wake up kids! Green Day is safe and cute. You can play them in the car on the way to the mall with your mom. This band will put you back on your parents' shitlist and with repeated listening, you'll come to value it more than that dayglo pager you bought to make yourself feel important. Kepone (says here it's pronounced "Kee-pone") is a trio from Richmond, VA. Michael Bishop and Tim Harriss provide the yells, yelps and two-part harmonies which serve as a nice focal point for the calculated musical mayhem that occurs on this 10 song CD. Guitars, bass and drums come on like hornets in attack formation - weaving and circling; sleek, dark and dangerous. Track five, "Ed's Sad Party," showcases Ed Trask's drumming and "Idiot Bull Drop" begins with a melancholy piano and eases into a hypnotic segment. Then the bludgeoning begins again. Sometimes the vocals can fall a bit short of the music, but all in all, this is a good release. I'd like to see them on a bill with Jesus Lizard, Tanner and Hemlock. (JOSH)