Pigs - "Wronger" (Album Review)

By: Dan Caycedo

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 02/10/2015

Label: Solar Flare Records

“Wronger” is a great album with a lot of great songs and high energy. Not a ton of diversity in song writing but this is a pretty powerful album that stays the course on annihilation

“Wronger” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. A Great Blight
2. The Life In Pink
3. Bet It All On Black
4. Amateur Hour In Dick City
5. Mope
6. Wrap It Up
7. Mouth Dump
8. Make Sure To Forget
9. Bug Boy*
10. Wronger
11. Donnybrook
*vocals by Julie Christmas

The Review:

Hell of a racket coming from the Pigs' latest release, “Wronger”. These guys sound tough as nails even if it feels like I've heard this sound before. I want to put them in the same category of modern bands like Metz and Whores with vocals that sound like their being sung through a distortion pedal. A very agro bass heavy discordant guitar driven band. Too many adjectives? Yep.

First song, “A Great Blight”, is a total test of wills, with a song title that's indicative of the sonic sound of guitars. I'm guessing the band is trying to weed out the meek before dive bombing into the rest of the album. I wouldn't even call this a song but more of an intro as there is no real structure since drums do not stay in time the entire length of this track and there's 3 or more guitar tracks trying hard to pierce your skull with an invisible needle.

Track #2, “The Life in Pink”, pummels through like a freight train with full on guitar/drums and bass. Vocals sound shrill and upsetting. It's a fucking punisher.  “Bet It All On Black”, is another shredder with fist pumps in the air and car wrecks in my immediate future. Probably my favorite track on this album as it has some great riffs in the vein of possibly early Am Rep stuff ala Melvins and maybe a bit of the Jesus Lizard and plenty of Unsane.

They go off on a tangent with the song, “Mouth Dump”, which is an instrumental of sorts with banjo and a kick drum. Then you have some dialog in the background that is more or less political but with rednecks.  Another notable track is “Bug Boy” which has Julie Christmas (Made Out of Babies) singing vocals throughout. Sounds like she's hemorrhaging and it works. Lots of guitar noise with steady bass and drums. You even get to hear her hack something up at the end. Great track.

“Wronger” is a great album with a lot of great songs and high energy. Not a ton of diversity in song writing but this is a pretty powerful album that stays the course on annihilation. I'd recommend this to those of you that like to party with lots and lots of cocaine... or maybe you just like noise bands. Dig it.

“Wronger” is available here

FFO: Whores, Unsane, The Jesus Lizard, Helmet

Band info: facebook | twitter

Pigs Live in Rotterdam @ De Baroeg, 23/10/2015 (With Bonus Interview!)

By: Victor Van Ommen

Filmed by: Martin Luyckx

On October 6th the Yankees were eliminated from the MLB Post Season. It was on this day that New York City band Pigs decided that October had nothing left to offer if they stayed home, so they booked a European tour with French label mates Sofy Major to support their newest, gnarliest album, “Wronger.” True story.

I caught up with Jim Paradise and Dave Curran of Pigs during this tour to talk about the band. We had a friendly chat about how the new album came together, the future of their label Coextinction Records, and what it’s like to have Pigs be their main musical focus. You can watch that interview below this article. What struck me the most was the transition they made from being chilled out dudes during the interview, to a loud, sludgy beast up on stage.

They opened with “This Life in Pink” with mixed results. I didn’t get the feeling that the sound guy was ready for the set to start and the band seemed a little disappointed in the meager turn out of this Friday night show. That said, by the time the last chorus blasted out of the PA, I got the impression that Jim certainly had the attitude to just have fun with it, a vibe that Dave quickly picked up on. Eventually, the sound guy had things figured out, Pigs were ready to give it their all, and as a bonus, the meager turn out meant no lines at the bar. This is the holy trinity of any rock show and we were lucky enough to witness this. Jim pounded away like a lumberjack and Dave’s vocal chords were being torn to ribbons as Pigs made their way through a set comprised of older songs that created a solid foundation for the songs off of “Wronger,” which claimed the bulk of the hour they were on stage. I hope for Pigs that they get treated to larger shows further down the road because a band this loud and this powerful deserve it.

Band info: facebook