Part Chimp preview

Part Chimp, The Plastic Constellations
Beat Kitchen, Chicago
Sunday, March 12, 2006

Bands don’t come with highlighting markers, which is why we have a cottage industry of soundalikes and acolytes. Neither Part Chimp nor The Plastic Constellations are doing anything new, yet they’re both extremely powerful performers and worthy of the ancestry they know so well.

Part Chimp pal around with wrath-of-noise terrorists Mogwai, but are completely lacking in subtlety. Last year’s I Am Come (Monitor) draws its rubber cable riffing from Corrosion Of Conformity, Black Sabbath, Sonic Youth, and Pelican without catering to any specific crowd — save those with interest in keeping the neckbrace industry afloat. Groove personified, I Am Come might be what Metallica could’ve become had Cliff Burton lived and Motörhead been more integral to them than Venom.

The Plastic Constellations, likewise lacking in subtlety, are less forgiving in approach. The bulk of Crusades (Frenchkiss) shouts what it doesn’t spit, taking the Fugazi/Jawbox angle on anthemic punk and juicing the choruses with gang vocals. From Minneapolis geographically but the D.C. scene spiritually, their second album is a restive and defiant squall, punching at the air and carving out slogans like “We were born to do extraordinary things!” with pride.

Chicago’s The Narrator headline Sunday’s show, while Oxford Collapse open.

— Steve Forstneger

Click here to download Part Chimp’s “War Machine.”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly