Slate might be talkin’ about Portland as an indie mecca, but as far as we can tell, Los Angeles is doing some pretty good lobbying on its own right: From Silver Daggers and Bodies Of Water to past Band To Watch/recent-Sub Pop signees No Age and the whole Smell posse (BARR, Mika Miko, Abe Vigoda, etc) the city of Angels is hooking it up hardcore with punky D.I.Y. spirit. One of our favorite crews of L.A. noisemakers are HEALTH, a young quartet who recorded their excellent self-titled debut at that selfsame Smell (the art space on the cover of No Age’s awesome Weirdo Rippers and in the “Boy Void” video). Ah, we love overlaps! OK, that’s enough context — let’s take a listen.
Screeching across 11 songs in less than 30 minutes, the boys trip through chanty Liars to grinding hardcore squall (“Triceratops”), no wave-style Animal Collective (“Heaven”) and discordant Deerhoof-on-DNA noise burts (take a pick). We love their day-glo palette and Black Dice(d) sense of melody, doubled-up percussion (see surf-on-speed “Crimewave”) and the zoothorn overflow. Our absolute favorite, though, is “Perfect Skin,” a slow, crunchy plodder that finds shadowy resonances in its chirped harmonies and final shoegazing feedback burst. We wanted to offer a palette-cleansing range of material, so here’s a wealth of HEALTH, including a spooky, icy new wave remix of “Triceratops” by Montreal’s CFCF.
What’re they looking at? Right, a very bright future…
Health is out 9/18 (yup, next week!) on Lovepump United. You can also nab the vinyl version on Cold Sweat, soon after.
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ahh.. the smell… funny how they used to be looked as a sort of cbgb’s type of place where anyone could play and anything goes type of thing and now they totally have become this pretentious scene all on its own where all the bands pretty much sound the same. lame.
The fact that the above commenter refers to CBGB’s as a type of place “where anyone could play and anything goes type of thing” speaks volumes about his or her credibility on this subject. Amusing, anyway.
the crystal castles remix of Crimewave is one of the best dance songs ive heard this year
yomama, grow up. the smell is the best venue in la. have you even been?
While agreeing with Caleb, i’d also say that Crystal Castles is the band to watch. Not Health.
health is a band from LA/ it’s el gay shit the stupid way/ that a gay bitch uses bidet/ to wash his butt free of nut and i say/ fuck stereogum/ karen o cum in it’s thighs/ they aa love lame shit like fucking guys/ and fucking girls too/ eating girls poo/ doesnt taste like roses, when you make your poses/ lettin sufjan yank your hoses/poo covered noses/ but anyways, man, call me dan/ rappin shit like sirhan/ sirhan who killed a kennedy/ pitchfork and stereogum are mad friendemies/ drinking semen from out of my butthole
For the past two months I have been studying this statement so I could officially know what the fuck “Jwiggles O’ Reily” was really talking about. I have found that it is supposed to be a rap of some sort.
First he starts off saying “Health is a band from L.A., more like L. GAY shit, much like the way a gay bitch will use a bidet (which is similar to a toilet in shape, but instead sprays a jet of water directly into your anus) so that they can wash their behinds of male genitals” implying that the “gay bitch” has been receiving anal sex from another male. He then goes on to say how he dislikes Stereogum. His next statement is about Karen O and may possibly be saying she has semen on her thighs. He says that Stereogum likes topics about males and females engaging in sexual acts, or “girl’s eating poo” (infering Two Girls One Cup). His next line “doesnt taste like roses, when you make your poses” may be him attempting to make a philisophical statement about life. The next lines are meant as a rhyme. He then says “Anyways man, call me Dan, rapping similar to Sirhan (meaning Sirhan Sirhan, the man who assassinated Robert F. Kenedy – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirhan_Sirhan),” then he says “Pitchfork.com and Stereogum.com are friends/enemies,” he then says the website’s are both drinking “semen out of his butthole”.
Over the course of these two long months, I developed a case of jondis, and had a mild seizure. I ate one hundered mott’s fruitsations cups, and ten packages of pizza pops. This previous week I have been recooperating, and have vomited a total of 17 times.
The doctors told me i have developed cancer over those two months and am going to die next year.
You’re welcome.
What the fuck is jwiggles talking about?
hey guys, I’m co-releasing the new album, I’m doing the cassette version.
and the smell is VERY diverse. quit being so fucking close minded if you think all the bands sound the same.
http://www.dntrecords.com
health is good, but upsilon acrux is the best smell band–
what’s a smell band? and upsilon acrux USED to be fucking awesome!! but now they have an almost completely different lineup, so like…
Smell Roll Call:
Anavan
No Age
Clipd Beaks
Kyle H. Mabson
Mae Shi
Health
Silver Daggers
Abe Vigoda
Child Pornography
On and Off Superfast
Dommm
Nosaj Thing
Word the fuck up.
those would be examples of smell bands, I asked you to define it.
is it just bands that play there a lot? wouldn’t you just call those LA bands?
clear this up for me
funny you left out mika miko
I like a band called Health, but they’re from Greensboro, NC. http://www.myspace.com/healthyportions to check them out. I like the song morning ‘sigh’ the most, always gets stuck in my head.
Hell yeah Health from Greensboro. Marijuana Wolf ain’t so bad either. Sweet Omar loves you.
health are awesome like if suicide had more firepower.
i saw health live – they opened for NIN last night in nashville. and imo, health sucked. apparently many other people agreed because i heard more booing than applause for them. NIN made up for them though – NIN was awesome =)
so basicly – health sucks >.<
I saw Health at the Hollywood Palladium on November 22nd with Of Montreal. I have never been so disgusted by music in my life. That’s right I said disgusting because that is the only word that fully describes every facet of the Health performance. They should do the world a favor and never play music again. They should also get rid of the tall lanky guy with long hair who doesn’t know how to play any instruments, screaming like a girl does not require talent. On a positive note, it would behoove the drummer, who was ferociously good, to find another band, he will hold himself back the longer he sticks with losers. Please Health, never ever insult an audience with your music again.
Thanks,
Christine
Health fucking sucks.
Christine is right. Mindless, weird for the sake of weird screaming and other random digital noises is NOT good music. No matter which way you slice it. I don’t care how cool it makes you look to say you’re into this band.
Fuck you Stereogum. Health sucks