The Down & Outs’ “Mars” is an Edgy, Noisy Post-punk Song About a Twisted Romance

The beginning of “Mars” by The Down & Outs is a torturous sound like someone is playing some field recording of a feedbacking guitar in a subway and manipulating that signal so that you’re not even sure what you’re hearing. But it’s an apt introduction to the song ahead that itself sounds like glam rock influenced post-punk song being performed in the tight confines of a utility closet because it’s the only space available on the moon base from which a near future staging area for flights to the planet Mars are located. Sure the fidelity is hard to place because clearly the production has a keen ear for sonic detail. But the passionate performance and vocals that are reminiscent of what might have happened if Chrome was way more into Bowie and collaborated with The Faint to deliver what sounds like the story of a twisted romance. And in the end the vocals repeat the chorus of “We can go Mars sometime!” to the point of being nearly unhinged giving the whole song a genuinely edgy tone. Listen to “Mars” on Spotify.

Queen City Sounds Podcast S2E41: Buck Gooter

Buck Gooter, photo by Billy Hunt

Buck Gooter is a “Ghost-motivated electronic rock” band from Harrisonburg, Virginia originally consisting of the duo of Terry Turtle and Billy Brett. Across many releases starting in 2006, Buck Gooter has charted a unique creative vision from the music to the artwork and performance style. At times a self-styled “industrial blues” group Turtle and Brett infused their highly political and insightful songs with an electrifying intensity and layered aesthetics fusing the avant-garde with the immediately accessible. Like a punk band that got into arthouse films and drew more inspiration from the likes of The Screamers, Butthole Surfers and Chrome than the usual suspects. Turtle tragically passed away on November 20, 2019 but left the legacy of the band to Brett who has continued Buck Gooter and releasing albums to which Turtle contributed posthumously including 2021’s Head In A Bird Cage and the new album Ghost Brain which includes samples of Turtle’s vocals and music with contributions from Oliver Ackermann of A Place to Bury Strangers who recorded, mixed and mastered the record at Death By Audio in Queens, NY. It represents but the end of a chapter in the life of the band and a new beginning.

Listen to our interview with Billy Brett of Buck Gooter on Bandcamp and see the band on tour in the USA now including on Friday, April 14, 2023 at Glob in Denver with Polly Urethane, Nightshark and Pythian Whispers, show at 9, $10. The tour itinerary below following the Denver show.

4/15/23 – Albany, CA @ Ivy Room 4/16/23 – San Francisco, CA @ Thrillhouse
4/18/23 – San Pedro, CA @ The Sardine 4/19/23 – Los Angeles, CA @ Permanent Records Roadhouse
4/21/23 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Lost Leaf 4/22/23 – Miami, AZ @ Miami Loco Arts Festival

buckgooter.com

Buck Gooter on YouTube

Buck Gooter on Instagram

Buck Gooter on Facebook