Chattanooga Pulse

Written by Ernie Paik
Tuesday, 30 September 2008 21:42
Dark Meat
Universal Indians
(Vice)
More than two dozen musicians are credited within the liner notes of Universal Indians, the debut album from the Athens, Georgia outfit Dark Meat, and in a way, the group is more akin to a marching band than a normal rock combo. The core style of their songs is a country-blues tinged rock, a bit like Neil Young and Crazy Horse, or maybe even the track “Fun House” by the Stooges with twang, featuring a towering wall of instruments following the lead motifs. You name it, and it’s probably here: flute, clarinet, saxophones, brass, strings, and more, in addition to the customary guitars and drums.
While about half of the songs use the overdriven blues-twang style, there are some oddball tracks like “Angel of Meth,” which is the closest to pop the band gets, or the album’s psychedelic closer, with vaguely south Asian drones. The lyrics are like hazily mystical death ballads, written by someone who might have watched El Topo and Dead Man more than a few times. The male lead singer’s verses are rebutted with passionate “hoo hoo” vocalizations; at other times, the vocals sound like Sandy Denny or a boys’ choir singer possessed by the ghost of Janis Joplin on uppers.
This current edition on Vice Records is the “Expanded Edition,” appending three bonus live tracks to the album, which was first released in 2006. The first extra is a chaotic brass/sax number that is a tribute to the late Albert Ayler, whose wild, intense saxophone playing is a key influence for the band. The other two live tracks are messier and even more furious than the studio versions, practically threatening to fall apart or explode at any second, and because of that, they’re superior takes. At their best, Dark Meat makes a tremendous, full, often devastating sound-barrage with each instrument crying for attention, swept up in a gripping sonic undertow.