Apocalyptic Sound From The Intelligence
Masterminded by art-punk Seattleite Lars Finberg, the Intelligence scrap together
apocalyptic lo-fi post-punk sounds brilliantly and like no other. On their latest
record, Boredom and Terror — first released on CD by Omnibus Records
earlier this year and set to be re-released on vinyl April 27 by Narnack Records — Finberg
comes off like a scavenger of sound presenting some of his collection.
Scooping together demented Casio melodies, crashing trashcan beats, reverb-drenched vocals, drum-machine hiccups and noisy, rumbling guitar, Finberg wrote most of the 13-track album — whose Narnack release will include a bonus CD of 10 previously unreleased songs — while drinking beers and watching sitcom reruns in his West Seattle home.
Out of experimental curiosity, Finberg — who also keeps the beat for Seattle punk band the A-Frames — turned his boredom into terror by breaking all the rules, writing chugging bass lines on the Casio, working out dirty but friendly beats on a kid's drum kit and overusing the delay pedal to soak the record with reverb. Despite sluggish sneers and much cynicism, Boredom and Terror is totally danceable and perfectly deranged. Even the words are gold.
"Who gives a fuck if the world is a drag?/ Who gives a fuck if the world is a
drag?" Finberg slurs over and over again on "World Is a Drag," repeating the
line lazily over distant, broken instrumentation, convincing you to give in and
agree. "You have exactly three months to get laid in L.A., go!" he speak-sings
on "The New Kings & Queens," drowning in echoes that make it sound like he's
singing from the bottom of an empty well.
Track-listing for the bonus CD is as follows: "Faint Joy," "Dept. of Nothing," "Matches Vs. Lighters," "Darling That Was Live," "I Don't Want To," "Let's Toil," "Edge That Cut Itself," "Bee Hive," "Practicing Medicine," "One to 20" and "T.M.W.T.T.R.O."
Finberg formed the Intelligence in 1999 with his girlfriend, guitarist Kimberly Morrison, bassist Min Yee and drummer Matthew Ford. Shortly thereafter, they began releasing singles on Dragnet Records, the label he runs with A-Frames lead singer/guitarist Erin Sullivan and Yee. Boredom And Terror is their first full-length recording. — Jenny Tatone [Wednesday, April 21, 2004]
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