Killdozer (Twelve Point Buck) - Grimm Artisanal Ales (Grimm Weisse)
Twelve Point Buck
With flamboyant showmanship and a grotesque sense of satire that would perhaps make even Jello Biafra blush, the criminally overlooked Killdozer represents the more squalid segments of the American underbelly on their 1989 masterpiece Twelve Point Buck.
Killdozer
Nearly Lynchian in the way it morphs mundane suburban pedantry into something horrifically uncanny, Twelve Point Buck’s songs are as sonically caustic as they are lyrically incisive. It is through the pairing of too-close-for-comfort points-of-view and the abrasive, in-your-face guitar tone that the band infectiously fashions itself as a slithering and thumping thing keen to rub up and leave its stink upon any listener. The band’s lyricism – delivered with guttural howls and ragged croons by frontman Michael Gerald (like a vocal incarnation of the harshest burn of the cheapest whiskey) – rejects the idea of peering inward from the outsider’s perspective. Instead, the subjects are broached as if by a proctologist’s examination: probing, even invasive.
Grimm Weisse
by Grimm Artisanal Ales
An uncompromisingly traditional and authentic Bavarian-style wheat beer — GRIMM WEISSE! This can-conditioned, double decoction mashed beauty is the culmination of careful study and research — a refreshing new direction in our brewing practice. Grimm Weisse pours with a translucent yellow haze and is topped with a pillowy, meringue-like head that lingers above the rim of the glass. The nose is enticing, with complex aromas of spice, banana, and lemon. The flavor follows the nose with a subtle and rich wheat tartness that enhances the beer’s supreme drinkability.
warped and depraved humanity
Gerald, not unlike the great American satirist of song Randy Newman, plays the parts of the miscreants, psychotics, and villains that the album’s pieces so vividly bring to life. On ‘Richard’ – one of the records’s most memorable cuts – he acts the part of a bank manager who vigorously enacts the cruelty that his position demands. On ‘Free Love in Amsterdam’ he swoons with the menace of a man who views and treats the subjects of his romantic interest like prostitutes. On ‘New Pants and Shirt’ he is something like a working stiff; and one who is constantly and vividly likening his filth-defined life to that of a pig.
These songs make frequent reference, sometimes overtly and other times implicitly, to a wide breadth of distinctly American artworks and cultural points: from Biblical quotations to blues songs to Flannery O’Connor to North Carolinian Confederate and notable murderer Tom Dula to The Poseidon Adventure. On the latter track, the devilishly hilarious ‘Man Vs. Nature’, the narrator drolly and without adornment recounts the cast, crew and plot details of the 1970’s disaster film. You really haven’t lived until you’ve heard it.
All throughout, the warped and depraved humanity that the album ventures through – where men are like farm animals (usually pigs) and women are ever-frequently prostitutes (or treated like they are) – is realized with an oppressive and impressive consistency. Even the album’s brilliant flashes of adorned instrumentation – triumphant horns and swelling accordion – become nightmarish beacons of apocalypse, drunkenly wavering as if to egg on the relentless lockstep of Killdozer’s distortion-minded trio towards deeper, darker delves.
As on their prior album (the perhaps even more depraved Little Baby Buntin’), Killdozer showcase a tight and driving instrumental style. The songs frequently venture away from the typical 4/4 time-signatures of most punk and noise rock. And along with their depictions of sickness and violence, their lyrics are far more vividly evocative, concise, (and therefore far more fascinating) than most of their contemporaries could have ever dreamed of being. Like much great art, these songs deepen dependent on how much we as listeners bring to them. With a keenness to interlink their cultural references and lyrical quotations – and to extrapolate imaginations from their vivid snapshots – they open up into worlds of horrific and mischievous dark comedies.
Because Killdozer provide us with such perfectly raucous music to drink extraordinarily responsibly along with, we must turn to Brooklyn’s Grimm Artisanal Ales. Since their founding in 2013, Grimm have tackled a wide assortment of styles. For this pairing we have selected their irresistible take on the crowd-pleasing wheat beer: introducing their stylishly packaged Hefeweizen. Based on a traditional Bavarian blueprint, the hazy pour – with a richly delicious head and robust taste that emphasizes its lemon side – satisfies the thirsty connoisseur and the uninitiated alike. That strong flavor and smooth delivery places it as a stiff competitor when it comes to those more popularly enjoyed wheat beers, most notably Allagash’s White. For those who enjoy that classic selection, Grimm’s will be one to slot into the overstuffed bucket (or can) list.
