“There’s no new ideas in the world. There’s only new arrangements of things […] Life changes every minute. The world is being created every minute and the world is falling to pieces every minute. Death is present everywhere, as soon as we’re born.” — Henri Cartier-Bresson
Opening with a minute-long monologue by the French photography master Henri Cartier-Bresson is one way to send a message. Especially if the rest of your album is viciously thrashy metal, wickedly crunchy and devouring, yet all instrumental.
Released in February, Guns on Television is the latest full-length by Whine. It’s always impressive when a duo can sound this full and loud: With Marie de Courcy on guitar, Dylan Clevenger on drums, and the two of them playing a bunch of other instruments (including “chains”), Whine’s new album rarely offers quiet reprieve. Instead, it’s shred, shred, whip, whip, whip… In other words, the perfect canvas for finally capturing their practiced chain performance. And for wordlessly speaking to the world’s ever-present balance of life and death.
Also sending a message? SPELLLING, one of the Bay’s local indie icons, who this week kicks off a tour for their new album Portrait of my Heart with Whine in support. Whine sounds so hardcore compared to Chrystia Cabral’s melodious voice, the pairing might have seemed disjointed in another era, but the new album from SPELLLING is decidedly heavier on guitars, especially on the latter half (“Drain,” “Satisfaction,” “Love Ray Eyes”).
See Whine open up for SPELLLING at the Great American Music Hall this Friday, April 4, and then see them cover Dopesmoker in its entirety at the Crown on—you guessed it—Sunday, April 20.
