Donzii’s “Rightway Highway” is an No Wave Funk Post-Punk Anthem for Non-Conformists Everywhere

Donzii, photo courtesy the artists

Donzii is a bit of a favorite among connoisseurs of underground post-punk and its new single “Rightway Highway” with its retro style VHS glitched music video by Domingo Castillo is fine example of where the band is going with its forthcoming full-length debut (out on Grey Market Records later this year). Danny Heinze’s bent and clipped guitar lines dub style, Dennis Fuller’s minimal yet intricate and driving bass lines and of course Jenna Balfe’s nearly deadpan but theatrical and expressive vocals running through a backdrop of what looks like an amusement park in south Florida from which the trio hails. Fans of Bush Tetras will appreciate the way Donzii handles its rhythm scheme and mutant melodies as well as the poetry of the lyrics discussing a desire to escape from a wack situation where a person who wants to give back and not just take doesn’t fit in as elaborated upon and summed up with the line “if you can’t find the right way save it for another day, I’m just a runaway looking for the freeway.” It’s string of words that captures the sense that maybe until you have your plan for making your exit you can hold in your heart the sense that you are fine with being a weirdo in a place that isn’t so welcoming of them and your opportunity will come. Maybe that isn’t the actual sense of the song but music like Donzii’s resonates with that of bands like Suburban Lawns, Lithics and Ganser because it isn’t trying to fit into the confines of a narrow style and that in itself suggests it’s music for non-conformists in general with words giving comfort to their kind wherever the songs are heard. Watch the video for “Rightway Highway” on YouTube and follow Donzii at the links below.

Donzii on Facebook

Donzii on Instagram

Blarg Engages in Culture Jamming Time Travel With the Bizarre Psychedelic Pop Song “Suburban Lawn (Su, Where Are You Now?)”

Blarg1_crop
Blarg, photo courtesy the artists

Blarg, which is a name many of us wish we had thought of before these guys did to express our contempt and disgust for so many things in the world and to put a humorously on the nose name on the project, really take us to strange places in space and time on its new single “Suburban Lawn (Su, Where Are You Now?).” It slips effortlessly in and out of a kind of psychedelic surf rock song but not the kind that got so played out between 2009 and 2018. It’s far noisier and Blarg seems to have no time for staying on script as there is an aspect of the cut-up method to the songwriting. At the end it sounds like someone just turned down the delay on the whole track and then a sound like someone ejected the VHS tape that was the source of the recording with the audio version of visual glitches mixed in with the song. Somehow Blarg wrote and recorded a song that sounds paradoxically futuristic and retro at the same time partly by grounding itself on a classic rock and roll structure and then dispensing that entirely when it goes into the tripped out section where most of the instrumentation drops out and extended synth blips convey a sense of being in outer space then back into a garage rock at the drive-in-theater-to-watch-campy-horror-movies vibe. But across the song there are sonic anomalies like bits of trap beats dropped expertly and perfectly into choice moments. Like some songwriter from the future who fell in love with various eras of past music and culture and didn’t see any reason why it couldn’t all be reconciled. Kudos to the nod to Su Tissue of weirdo post-punk band Suburban Lawns. Maybe VH1 can revisit one or more of its old series to answer the question in the song title. Listen to the track on Soundcloud and follow Blarg at the links below.

blarg.biz
open.spotify.com/artist/47SInqfKJkSvShd7MxyWi4/about
twitter.com/blargmusic
facebook.com/blargmusic
instagram.com/blargmusic