Charm School and the heavy alt rock spiraling down sting of "Year of the Scorpion"

 

"I fell in love with your name and you never were the same sex acrobatic bounced check with a smattering of Valtrex..."

With a textured heavy bass line that feels so rubbery slinky, like it is tuned a half step down (I doubt it) with  plod and stomp drum beats and artfully caustic guitar chords sounding appropriately stank-faced while Andrew Rinehart's scowling vocal countenance stares you down singing:

"I fell in love with your name and you never were the same sex acrobatic bounced check with a smattering of Valtrex..."   

AND

"You grinned on the sly and told me you never lied still I have to admit your femme fatale skills sure paid the bills..."

AND

"And now forever and ever tomorrow to remember burial scenes in recurrent dreams
The same old song I’ve been hearing for way too long..."

The track "Year of the Scorpion" by Louisville, Kentucky based Charm School sounds exquisitely head banger-ish. It is a surprisingly sweet and sticky apple pie of a song, a mixture of heavy metal, grunge, busker punk and more. I am particularly loving the main prog and the seemingly single and dual guitar leads that serve less as leads than a kind of lead guitar engine playing repeated patterns that ramp up the tensions of the song in amazing ways.

Now go with me on this one, listening to the alt rock heaviness, the subversive post punk swagger and more, dirtied up, heavily scared in all it's totality (and just based on this one song) I am, for whatever reason, feeling a sort of inside out amalgamation of artists like Butthole Surfers, One Day as a Lion, Tomahawk and Jane's Addiction more so in artistic temperament than sound, mind you, but in my brain that is what I am feeling at this moment in time. 

There is a particular moment when the chunky guitar prog does this half step thing before the song circles back around to those addictive lead guitars and bass dance. What ever the song is exactly about, I am not sure but the passage, "You see a scorpion’s gonna do what a scorpion does / It is what it is / It was what it was...", gives me some clues. The sense for me is mistakes made, missed opportunities, blessings and curses but ultimately survivorship at the end.  

"Year of the Scorpion" is from Charm School's latest EP "Finite Jest" out now.

Charm School is Andrew Sellers’ (aka Andrew Rinehart's) new music project with longtime collaborators Matt Filip and Drew English, with new drummer and multi-instrumentalist Jason Bemis Lawrence.

-Robb Donker Curtius

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://soundcloud.com/charm-school777/simulacra

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0dw0yoBLUACycC9fNcNnFl

https://charmschool777.bandcamp.com/album/finite-jest

https://www.instagram.com/charmschool.band


Charm School is Andrew Sellers’ (aka Andrew Rinehart's) new music project with longtime collaborators Matt Filip and Drew English, with new drummer and multi-instrumentalist Jason Bemis Lawrence. The name change signals a move away from Sellers’ folk and pop-based songwriting (as evidenced by his recent duet with Bonnie “Prince” Billy) toward a much darker and more aggressive sound. Think 70s post-punk mixed with 90s post-rock and you’ll be close. Originally from Louisville, KY, Sellers has paid his dues in both the NYC and LA DIY music scenes, co-founding The Body Actualized Center in Bushwick and booking shows at Basic Flowers in Downtown LA. Charm School represents a return to Sellers' punk and hardcore roots, to the music that shaped his musical consciousness as a teenager (bands like Slint, The Jesus Lizard, Gang of Four, Joy Division, Fugazi, etc.).

Charm School, alt rock, post punk, heavy metal, grunge, "Year of the Scorpion", Kentucky, Louisville, brand new EP "Finite Jest", Andrew Sellers’ (aka Andrew Rinehart's) new project,