If you thought there was nothing new under the sun for a guitar / drums duo, the 21-year-old kids in <strong>Taxidermists</strong> are here to show you the light. Honesty Box is a record that reinvents rock sound and song-form so effortlessly that you’d think this is how it’s always been done. This isn’t to say it comes out of thin air, with its detuned guitars recalling classic Sonic Youth, and crooked time signatures that could be a lost Polvo masterpiece. Coming from the Western Mass scene and the Dark World collective, Taxidermists inject new angles and energy, and create the catchiest hooks where you least expect them.
Their no-bullshit sound and approach is at odds with the overly-processed music of so many bands today, recorded with an incredible amount of dynamic range, making the heaviest sounds hit the hardest, and the quietest incredibly intimate. The songs are somehow laid back and insistent at the same time, moving seamlessly from fuzzy pummeling to sweet incantation up close in your left ear.
It’s easy to hear that Salvadore McNamara and Cooper B Handy have been playing music together since they were 15, living in towns separated by 13 miles of salt water and riding the ferry 45 minutes each way to rehearse. They’ve created their own cosmos of music that’s raw and real and also precisely crafted.
This is the fourth Taxidermists LP, but the first available outside Massachusetts, and the first in Hi-Fi. Written on a farm in Hadley, perfected on tour, and recorded by Elisha Wiesner at his Studio Double Platinum on Martha’s Vineyard. Mastered by the legendary Bob Westonin Chicago.