Citric Dummies play hardcore punk with a smirk and a snarl. The Minneapolis trio—Drew Ailes, Sean Albert and Travis Minnick—is underground enough to taunt the big bands, but good enough to earn a slot opening for Jack White in 2025. In her review of the hilariously titled Split with Turnstile (it is not a split with Turnstile), Jennifer Kelly noted that, “These Minnesota punks deliver their music in short, furious, firehose spews, Bad Brains minus the reggae stuff and with a snarky sense of humor." Here's some of the music they enjoy.
Drew Ailes aka David Lunch
Johnny Moped — Incendiary Device
I live like three blocks off Lake Street and when the cops murdered George Floyd, I more or less had some kind of metal episode and spent all night staring out the window at insane shit, listening to helicopters and constantly reading updates from friends about miscellaneous mayhem. Black sedans without license plates zooming around, friends getting shot at by random men in suits or held at gunpoint by internet dorks in Hawaiian shirts — it was so disgustingly consuming that I forgot to listen to music at all for three days. At some point, I remembered music was a thing and immediately put this song on and kicked and punched the air in my room. Dig around for the video of the Johnny Moped band playing the back garden in 1977 for another real treat.
Roky Erickson — White Faces (Demo) at 1.6x speed
Nerds on Livejournal got me into 13th Floor Elevators in the mid 2000s but it took me a while after to dig into Roky. From time to time, you gotta take a great song and speed the fucker up (using YouTube controls) and roll around in the cosmic obscenity. The demo version has more shredded vocals, so I prefer it. Never got to see him live and though I’m sure it would’ve been played slower than ever, it’s a deep regret of mine.
Barry Rolfe — Look the Business
I always check anything Splattered Records puts out because a big chunk of it ends up getting a song in my head that I adore for years. I tried to find some info on Barry Rolfe, but I ended up just sorting through a bunch of old British fathers who went by “Baz” on Instagram for a half an hour, comparing their lazy selfies with the guy on the record. I shove this life affirming song into the ears of anyone who lets me hang out with them for longer than an hour.
The Sound — Under You
I cried my eyes out recently watching the Adrian Borland documentary, “Walking in the Opposite Direction” as I’m a huge fan of The Sound. It’s not new to me and I’m not sure why, but this song has really hit me over the last year. The Sound are up there with Killing Joke in terms of extremely important bands that get overlooked.
Sean Albert aka David Cronutburger
Lou Reed — Coney Island Baby
Coney Island Baby is the sixth solo studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed, released in December 1975 by RCA Records.
One of the first albums I ever truly loved. Obnoxious and sweet. More artists should try less.
Juiceboxxx — I Don't Wanna Go into the Darkness
An album that nearly perfectly skirts the line between parody and genuine honesty. A live act that makes people viscerally angry at his relentless youth pastor-esque positivity (the first time I saw Juiceboxxx I walked in mid-set as someone yelled “you suck!” To which he responded, “that’s not the first time I’ve heard that and it won’t be the last — next song!”) All of this is grounded/ungrounded in a magnified sense of failure and “being a complete loser” that has always been hilarious and genuinely inspiring to me.
Neurosis — Times of Grace
Times of Grace is the sixth studio album by American post-metal band Neurosis, released on May 4, 1999 through Relapse Records. It continued
The perfect record to listen to in the dead of Minnesota winter, snow-blind walking around Lake of the Isles off a 2.5mg thc mint accidentally ignoring somebody you kinda know waving at you.
Travis Minnick aka D.V. Tinner (Commentary by Drew)
Perverts Again — The New Man
More genius from the can’t miss Cleveland freak family.
Obtained Enslavement — Witchcraft
All of Citric Dummies are also metalheads of sorts — this was a band Travis uncovered that we had both slept on. Cool Norwegian black metal with members of Aeternus (also underrated).
The Hives (recorded, live, and the people)
I made this one up for Travis because I’m also a huge Hives fan but recently he just did a couple tours with them as he also drums in Snooper and had nothing but good things to say about them.
I woke up this morning feeling really anxious!! New Cruelster (nee PERVERTS AGAIN) continue to deliver their timely, sinister, neanderthal stomp. It’s their COVID song, folks, and we all knew it was coming! The lyrics are typical Alex Ward, the master of ripping the facade off of every day banalities to expose the creepy crawly reality of humanity that lurks beneath the surface. How strange it is to be anything at all, eh? These folks have been making a gem of a tv show called LITTLE LIONS DEN as well, propelling characters honed on their WRUW radio show into a disturbing talk show format replete with suburban slime and absurdities. All in all, this single is just what I would expect from ‘ the kids who brought you perverts again’ and it sounds remarkably like their Total Punk single “My Accident”. I’ve always enjoyed the layered talking (rather than singing) that they utilize throughout their universe (I think at this point it is fair to call it a universe) and this track is no exception. Hopefully the album packs a bigger punch than this single, which is good but certainly is resting on the formula they’ve well established. Something in my gut says it will, these folks have yet to release anything short of fantastic.
