Out of the material I've heard from Weekend Nachos, I think this is the most dark and gritty. It has got less of the cookie monster feel on the vocals, which is a plus, but that isn't to say that I don't like the vocals as I've heard them before from WN. In the case of this seven inch, it's a definite plus and suits the grittier, crustier style. There is definitely more dissonance than I've heard from them before, the sort of dissonance you might associate with grind, but this is no grind album.
I don't want to say this is akin to Tragedy, but it's definitely in a sense more into that direction. I guess a stupid review would say the music on this album is more "intelligent" than their previous works, but I think "serious" is a better word to describe it. It's not just the absence of the cookie monster vocals, there's also something markedly different about the riffs. The overall feeling I've had from previous Weekend Nachos works has been a bit in line with pizza thrash (the mood moreso than the music itself, nota bene). This time the mood reminds me more of the dark inklings of Portland's most beloved crusties. Weekend Nachos are definitely the band behind this release, don't get me wrong. You'd never confuse this for a Tragedy 7". The guitar sound is much thicker and everything is quite powerviolence-y despite this not being much of a powerviolence release, but that's okay. It sounds like for quite a part here Weekend Nachos went a bit out of their comfort zone and they succeeded in doing so.
Overall (which is perhaps not the best word to describe a two-song release) this definitely gets the thumbs-up from me. This stuff is heavy, chugging (in the right way for me), dark and gritty. It's ugly stuff, in the best possible sense. It's never good to be too serious, but this album is just the right dose of serious. I realize I'm speaking quite a bit in intangibles here, but I can't really pinpoint exactly what's so great about this album, it just pushes all the right buttons for me. Which I think is what you want from an album. [A389]
- Kristján Friðbjörn
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WEEKEND NACHOS - Worthless
"Chicago's Weekend Nachos is one of those bands I'm quite weird about. I don't listen to them a lot, but when I do I really enjoy them, and they are (as far as it goes with this kind of music) to me quite accessible. It's easy for me to like their music, which I suppose is a plus. It's certainly the case for me that a lot of the time I try to get into a certain band or album and it takes a lot of time and many listens before I learn to appreciate it, but it's never been that way with Weekend Nachos for me."
ReplyDeleteThat pretty much sums up my feeling about WN. I liked this EP but for some reason just don't listen to them. They put on a great live show too. Very nice review by the way.
Nice hearing from you again, Evan!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a band that is underrated at the same time they are loved. I know that sounds weird, but when you line up their releases, one can see that there is more going on than one would expect from a band that a lot of people are comfortable of chalking up for being just heavy and crazy.