ZZZ – The Sounds of ZZZ
By Andrew Duncan • Jul 29th, 2008 • Category: Categories, Greatest Album In The Universe, Indie RockZzz
The Sounds of ZZZ
2005 – Howler
Origin: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Style: Garage Rock Revival
The organ is either for celestial hauntings or the works of the devil. And yes, you guessed it, Zzz’s sound is spewed forth from the goat balls of el diablo himself.
Darkly rooted, schizophrenic, and tautly energized, Zzz exploits the Hammond organ into an orgy of swirling sin. When I first heard Six Finger Satellite fire up “Rabies (Babies Got The),” I was dumbfounded by what I was exactly listening to. The organ, though not in the traditional sense, made you do things, uncontrollable things. It reminded me a lot of The Damned’s “Neat Neat Neat” where you wanted to convulse on the floor but weren’t exactly sure why. But the Hammond disappeared from punk rock, unless you were on the Estrus label, in which the organ was essential to the preservation of that garage rock/surf sound. But then something happened. The New Yorkers took it over, made love to it, and threw it back out like yesterday’s trash.
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion pounded away with a whole lotta “yeahs!” Then Jonathon Fire Eater abused the organ like David Lynch does to reality. So it is no surprise that the New York hipsters would go crazy over this stuff. (See Cityzen.TV’s review on ZZZ – http://cityzen.tv/?startPage=%2Fcontent%2F2005_4_10zZz.php). And that’s where Zzz fits in, somewhere between 7th Avenue and the 1970s.
The Sounds of ZZZ is seedy, real seedy. Although it is not necessarily untrue, reviewers relating Djorn Ottenheim’s baritone to Jim Morrison is annoying. It’s like comparing Phyllis Diller to an electrical storm. But the roar of Ottenheim’s voice is tinged with whiskey and stained with predatory power. If Ginsberg could croon, he would have converted “Howl” into this album. It might not make the dance floor move, maybe the four-on-the-floor “Lucy,” but it might make great smoky background music for accentuating some saliva with a random stranger in the corner of the bar or a back alley rendezvous with a knife and a broken bottle. You pick the analogy. Simply, this is Detour if it was made out of music.
Cross-Reference: Six Finger Satellite, The Damned, The Hells
Andrew Duncan is a journalist who has migrated to the forces of academia. He has written for various publications including Chord, Heckler, Readyset...Aesthetic, and a vast array of alternative press contributions. When not roaming the streets of Indianapolis, he is either addicted to KXCI, making music, or striving to watch every film listed on IMDB.
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