bad robot brain

When I hear of a band that has played a show with one of my local favorites Shinyville one of the first things that comes to mind is that these guys must be somewhat off their rocker. Luckily, when I heard the debut self titled album by New York based duo Rocket Surgery I was not at all disappointed. To say the very least, Rocket Surgery is a little eclectic.

Rocket Surgery—the album, not the band—with 22 track clocks in at just under 80 minutes which is a mighty feat for most artists. Rocket Surgery has been split in two with a (conceptual) Side A and Side B. The tracks run a wide range styles from rock-a-billy, doo-wop, jam, surf-punk and Floyd inspired space-rock. Though I must clarify that these genres are the starting point for many of the songs, they in no way come close to describing the finished product. With a heavy dose of synth and samples topped off with Joel Kennedy’s unique vocal styling, Rocket Surgery’s sound oozes with candy coated glitch-pop, fresh from Willy Wonka’s diabolic boat ride.

The most exciting thing about Rocket Surgery is how difficult it is to categorize their sound. What I can say is that their chaos is calculated. Mark Ludas’ steady drum beats are the backbone that hold this album together. I’ve heard lesser bands fall into shambles when trying to produce such discordant music. Here it’s like a tornado winding itself around a pinhead. Throughout the tracks, the structure moves in an elaborate waltz—sometimes tight and organized, often flying free beyond the walls of gravity.

The album starts of strong, three of the first four songs are on my top five list of songs on this album: I Can Hold It Down (track 2), Eyes In The Wall (track 3), Trainwreck (track 4), Driving No Car (track 12), and Armegeddon (track 20). Trainwreck is by far my favorite track. It starts of with this kind of oom-pa-pa synth sound like the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange, and is riddled with these squawky android mouse vocals. Trainwreck has a real interesting sound that I dig quite a lot.

The final verdict is that Rocket Surgery is a pretty sweet treat, especially if you are a fan of both eclectic rock and highly distorted glitch music. This album is going to stay in my rotation for quite a while.