Named for the infamous illicit-content periodical from Lynch's primetime soap
Twin Peaks, Flesh World are a bit like a spinning strip of a Kenneth Anger reel, projected on an abandoned nightclub's wall, and emerging into phantasmagoric flesh and sonic dimensionality like a cursed, sensual inversion of that one A-ha video- put more concisely, they play a foggy, tense, and dry strain of pop-punk, inspired in equal parts by the Velvet Underground, The Associates, Section 25, and The Smiths. The band revolves around the songwriting collaboration of Jess Scott, who also sings for summery shoegazers Brilliant Colors, and Scott Moore of confrontational and queer-forward hardcore punk outfit Limp Wrist. The resulting sound is more reminiscent of the cool and acerbic Negative Scanner (throwback! catch!) or Sextile than either of the principals' respective branching projects.
Into the Shroud is Flesh World's third LP, and probably last, as the band hasn't updated their Tumblr since 2017 (the year this album was released)... and yes, they had a Tumblr (double throwback! I'm getting whiplash here!). Good points of entry for this LP are "Into the Shroud" with its urgent, weaving chords, dreamy harmonized vocals, and jittery vibrating hooks that lay the foundation for the chorus, "Problem in the Youth Bulge," which rides stiff and jutting Gang of Four-esque riffs through its gang-vocal chorus and slips into leaning, reverb-laden chords for the verses, and "This Great Cheap Face," with its desperate, dark, and spiny riffs, bobbing sarcastic chorus hooks, and knotted chords that tie together the bridge. With the obvious (obligatory for some) Lynch references, Velvets obsession, and
Vice co-signs (among others), it's all very 2014, culture-bumming, precious-depressoid, Millennial le-sigh-wave, which is completely washed as an aesthetic at this point, but hey, I run a
Blogspot, so who am I to throw stones from a glass menagerie? Uncs like this one with fuzzy feels for the late '10s are an easy pickup-and-roll for Flesh World's shtick, and that's fine- I don't mind not curving toward the mean here for once, folks. Also, if Gens Alpha and Beta don't come to resent Millennials too much for being their parents and/or landlords (possibly simultaneously), they might even pick up the vibe for stuff like this, and we could see a queer-coast-cold-wave-bleak-psyche-dark-punk revival in about 15 years, and just like that,
Into the Shroud (and this review) will become relevant again. Hey, I never said I wasn't playing the long game (non-game) for cultural significance here, although it's been mostly implied up to this point- under the shroud, so to speak.
