Pick Of The Week * July 1st
Tan as Fuck, The Dutchies
These two local bands end a two-week national tour together with a show in their hometown at Guido's Pizzeria (site of some of the best live music in town of late). Tan As Fuck belong to the surge of tweaked noise-and-electronics outfits emerging from the nation's musical underground in recent years. As with their mischievous colleagues Wolf Eyes and Nautical Almanac, this trio's most obvious musical predecessors are the first-wave industrial outfits of the early 1980s (before the term "industrial" came to be associated simply with disaffected dance music). They bring a spirit of innovation and improvisation to their outpourings, which are broad enough to encompass quietly whirring hums, shrieking chaos and sick, twisted, loping grooves--sometimes all at once. Such experimentation can result in stretches of tedium, but it also results in plenty of moments when the sounds of human voices, altered electronic circuitry, clattering percussion and honking alto sax converge into something revelatory, incantatory and even mind-altering. And, as the group's three self-released CDs suggest, they're getting better and better at what they do. Tan As Fuck member Angela Messina doubles as a member of The Dutchies, a trio who borrow liberally from the punk aesthetic, but make a sound rawer and rougher than most garage bands; at their best, they're both catchy and caustic. Both groups should have CDs for sale at this show, which'll be a perfect opportunity to witness some of the most interesting music being made in Nashville right now.
J.M.
Nashville Scene, June 26, 2003