Dig on Dark Meat

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 25, 2008 4:18PM

Dark Meat comes to us from Athens, Georgia, but the first time we heard them we were pretty sure they actually clawed their way out of another dimension to spread their riveting gospel across the land. If we're gonna play the "they sound like" game, we'd have to say Dark Meat resembles The Polyphonic Spree ... if The Spree's dark undercurrent exploded, shredding robes and ears for miles around as it blotted out the sun.

This dozen-plus person collective takes voices, guitars, drums, horns, and whatever the hell else they can get their hands on to craft songs of beautiful fury. It's impossible to categorize their album Universal Indians, but we recommend you listen to opening track "Freedom Ritual" since it does a good job of providing a reasonable sampling of the bands veering ways. Southern rock riffs, swelling lines of brass, female vocals that sound as if they're channeled via some ancient castrato, thundering and rolling drums, a free-jazz freakout ... jeebis, it's terrific. Oh, and the very next tune kicks off with some little kids singing. And it just gets better and better.

We expect the live show to be truly mind-blowing. How could it not be?

MP3: Dark Meat "Freedom Ritual"

Dark Meat plays The Empty Bottle tomorrow night, 1035 N Western, 10:00, $12, 21+

Photo via the band's MySpace