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“Rocked & Bottled” "No Safe Place" Genealogy Following the First World War, the Allies occupying the German Rhine River Valley sub-contracted various militia groups, primarily from North and West Africa, to do much of the actual occupying. This led to a great number of instances of African troops fathering children with the maidens of the valley. In a country already swirling in a sea of racial hatred, these children came to be known as the Rhineland Bastards. In most cases, the children were taken to hospitals and sterilized, but of course, many were exterminated as well. In 2001, when Chicago’s Brent Rickles, along with Dan Strack (a fellow bandmate in I, Rowboat) and Jason Whisman, decided to name the band they were forming after this little known footnote of European history, it was perhaps more appropriate than they knew at the time. Sex, violence, and politics seem to be the essential ingredients in the Bastards’ music. You kind of have to dig for it, since most of it’s instrumental. Sure, occasionally there’s an incomprehensible, strangulated shout trying to dig its way from underneath the layers of fuzz. But you can feel it, squirming around in there. Sex, violence and politics, that is. The band has built their reputation around ear-bleedingly-loud shows that feature multimedia galore, pulsing images on screens, porn, shit blowing up, and general sweatiness. It’s the kind of experimental heavy-ass pop that fans of Bardo Pond, Kinski, and High Rise might dig. Songs? Kind of. Beautiful epic guitar riffs and heavy metal drumbeats that just keep going and going as layers of feedback swirl and build until the walls start shaking? Straight up, my friend.
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Radio One Chicago - Live 2006 |
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