An Austin-based, self-described "outsider" punk band, Plax is comprised of seasoned area punks who cut their teeth playing in local mainstays like OBN III, Spray Paint, and Skeleton. Of course, when you're from Austin, self-anointed "outside" status is a given, sorta like saying, "Hey, I'm from Cincinnati, and boy do I like chili, and getting stabbed while walking home from a Reds game!"—it's one of the most "yes, and..." ways of describing your band I've encountered in my xx years on this wet, molding marble of a planet. Their lack of self-awareness is more than made up for by the intensity of their music, though. Plax takes the angular, jumpy chords of Wire and plays them like the resulting feedback will balm some deep irritation in the recesses of their organ tissue, packing a sort of prickly, desolate angst and southern swing into what amounts to a gritty, woodglue-and-flesh-mortared art-punk potash in the vein of self-loathing, blight-rock lodestars Iceage and Drug Church. Victor Ziolkowski's vocals are particularly arresting, favoring the breathy, lurching quality of Keith Morris's vocal delivery, which pushes against the bruising guitar noise as if it's fighting for air.
Clean Feeling is their debut, and only record, released on Austin label Super Secret back in 2017, but as you'd expect, Plax sounds anything but bashful and indecisive despite the green behind their gills at the time of its release. Strap up your spurs and get ready to kick over the charcuterie at your next local gallery showcase with the rubbery hooks, leap-frogging chord progressions, and bitter, saliva-slick vocals of "Boring Story," the bashing, weighty chords and combustible, propulsive grooves on "Not for You," and the dirgey, feedback-infused, shambling, black-out shit-stomper "1x1" ringing in your crusty, blood-clotted ear canals. The best art makes a legitimate sonic spectacle out of ruinous intentions, and this is the inflection point where Plax thrives.
Keep it to yourself (Super Secret Records).
