Lady Piss: Streaming

Perfectly brutal, artfully grubby noise-rock from a cadre of Maryland punk/metal vets, including Dactyl and Triac’s Noel Conrad (providing Lady Piss’ vocal sneer), Carrion and the Wayward’s Nick Skrobisz, Flowers in the Attic/Multicult/Fight Amp’s Rebecca Burchette (City Paper’s “Best Scream,” circa 2003, with rather less screaming here), and Rick Major. All told, that’s an impressive CV—and the product, the sort of grand off-center primal heaviness that makes the Jesus Lizard cause blood to rush and sweat to bead, is pretty great, the sort of cathartic, antipathetic (not really a) mess that a certain stripe of Steve Albini disciple will find straight-up fucking brilliant. And as the heretofore dropped names might allude, Streaming’s also a bit retro in a really unexpected way.

We’re ushered into the Lady Piss, uh, stream—more of a torrent really, but, you know—in what feels like the end of some sort of metal/punk/indie-rock/jazz war to end wars: Detuned (sounding, at least), feedbacking guitar pulls out of a moment of doomy viscous metal chug into this uneasy song of uncomfortable spans of just “off”-sounding guitar and grating vocals breaking down into churning release just at the moment you can barely take it anymore. Things get rather more sane by the time “Send Yourself a Postcard,” with its little wily shards of noisy guitar shred and a chorus that, if not catchy, makes some kind of sense. Finally “Never Come Back” throws the listener a bone: a song that actually seems to resolve. And on a record that seems almost tantric in its approach to rock release, generating in fast-motion the kind of unease Clockcleaner delivers in plodding doses, just a hint of resolution feels like a million bucks.

Lady Piss plays the Ottobar Aug. 28 with Hollywood. For more information visit nosympathizer.blogspot.com.

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