(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
The VSS started out in 1995 in San Francisco playing keyboard-driven noise-rock
and released the albums Nervous Circuits and 21:51.
Keyboardist Andrew Rothbard, guitarist Joshua Hughes and drummer David Clifford
reformed in 1997 as Slaves and released a self-titled EP (Loveletter, 1998),
the single An Exact Seance/ Penumbra-Hadabra (Tripoli, 1997) and
the six-song mini-album
The Devil's Pleasures (Troubleman Unlimited, 1999).
The sound of
On Your Belly You Shall Crawl and Honeycomb Communique
falls somewhere between psychedelic pop and glam-rock.
The lengthier tracks, such as Calling The Loa and
Name Of Man, display musical theatrics
wed to a macabre sensibility borrowed from
Swans and Nick Cave.
Renamed Pleasure Forever, the piano-guitar-drums trio penned an even more
sophisticated album: Pleasure Forever (Subpop, 2001).
The pompous melody of Goodnight
is typical of their brand of art-rock, but their efforts are better represented
by the 7-minute mini-suite Any Port In A Storm,
that spans Ziggy-era Bowie, operetta arias, minstrel song and circus music,
and, in the process, evokes the Chainsaw Kittens.
One man is definitely an influence on Pleasure Forever:
the powerful, deafening stomp of Meet Me In Eternity merges
Nick Cave's fanatic impetus with pop harmonizing, and
Cave's fervor permeates Stay Precious as well.
The nine-minute Magus Opus emphasizes the psychological
component of their music and showcases some inspired piano playing.
The band sometimes tries too hard to weave complex harmony, and, because
the melodic core is too frail, the instrumental flourishes sound disconnected.
Pleasure Forever's second album, Alter (Subpop, 2003), features some
explosive numbers that perfect the debut's intuitions:
the hypnotic, demonic boogie of White Mare,
the piano-based rock'n'roll of Czarina,
the epic melodic progression of Draws an 8,
the gloriously drunk vaudeville of Hymn Harmonia (Queen on a really bad day),
the Stray Cats-ian retro` vignette of Tempest II.
The six-minute psychodrama of Aeon Flame is visceral and intense,
full of sudden hiccups and sudden swoons,
despite the obvious quotations
(the rhythm echoes the Doors' People Are Strange,
the guitar mimic the melody of Weill's Alabama Song).
Its murderous atmosphere is matched by
the chaotic and suspenseful Wicked Shivering Columbine.
The "glam" sound of the first album is mostly gone. It permeates
the closing Gideon & Goliath and little else. Overall, the band is
tighter, harder, meaner and stronger.
Unfortunately, the second half of the album loses quite a bit of steam and
momentum.
Andrew Rothbard's skills at the keyboards have vastly improved.
His distorted vocals, on the other hand, become tedious after a while
(its the only element that doesn't change from song to song).
Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Rothbard's next project was a
solo project in the vein of Syd Barrett,
Abandoned Meander (Smooch, 2007), credited to
Andrew Douglas Rothbard.
It was followed by
Exodusarabesque , a more electronic work.
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