By Greg D'Avis
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Zeke
Super Sound Racing
IFA Records
If your sense of humor runs such that band member names like "Dizzy Lee Roth" and "Blind Marky Felchtone" make you laugh like a maniac, then Zeke may just be the band for you. Unfortunately, the rest of us should probably pass.
Zeke plays raw, lightning-fast rock/punk in the vein of the New Bomb Turks and about 8 million other bands in recent times. Unfortunately, they don't have anything to set themselves apart from the pack, aside from the stupid lyrics (song titles like "Slut" and "Incest" should give you an idea of what sector of the population they're coming from.)
Zeke aren't bad at what they do, just undistinguished. They're probably really fun to see live, if only to see how long they can sustain the breakneck speed before they pitch forward in a faint. But their recorded output is nothing special, and probably doomed to obscurity after one or two listens.
Deadguy
Work Ethic
Engine Records
Work Ethic compiles the first two seven-inch records from New Jersey's Deadguy, the latest band in a series of descendents from the early '90s New York hardcore scene. Like other recent offspring of that period Ä Die 116 and Orange 9mm Ä Deadguy are lookin' pretty solid early on.
Deadguy combines members of No Escape and Rorschach, and also some of the best elements from those bands Ä Tim Singer, late of No Escape, brings his throat-wrenching growl to the mix and Rorschach's Keith Huckins still plays the psychotic/heavy guitar he did in his old band. Add heavy bass and drums to the mix and you've got a winner.
The first three songs on Work Ethic make up the more recent output from Deadguy, and they're the stronger tracks. The band works like a thunderstorm Ä low rumbling, building up and then exploding. "Apparatus" is the best example of this style. Singer's vocals go from a low monotone to throat-rending screaming over music that moves back and forth between understated heaviness and full-on metal/hardcore.
In recent years, New York "supergroups" of this sort have often had the life expectancy of Peruvian fruit flies, so here's hoping that Deadguy sticks around a while.