London, England
Organ Magazine
ORGAN #263 – June 26th 2008
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SERPENTONE – Spiraling (self release) – A healthy bit of defiantly classic scratchy 90’s North American home-made punk rock reality waiting for you here – a three piece led by the raw emotion and powerful voice of one Erika Meyer, Serpentone are a powerful Babies In Toyland flavoured angry angsty set of adventures, statements, observations and explorations. Relationships, gender politics, S&M hints, Minivan moms – Erika in on the front cover, bent over her guitar, lost in a frail of hair, the cover photo gives you more than a healthy clue. They’re from Portland Oregon and they damn well sound like it. Raw throated do-not-mess-with-me goodness – some of it is very obvious and maybe even a little naive, that’s kind of good though, that honesty is why this album works and bites and demands your ears so much more than the new Free Kitten album – real pearls that’ll tie you up. Dirty old school sound, raw grunge and riot grrl flavoured bite, the real honest deal, you can’t fake a sound like this, you can’t fake lo-fi raw energy – it either happens naturally or it sounds wrong. Spiraling is a very real, very honest, very direct album, a naked album and no one’s going to put her in a line and tell her what to do, no swallowing sugar coated lies – even when she rather convincingly reaching deep inside and tells us she’s a little crazy and messed up – we love it when things are good. Would you? Serpentone blister, Serpentone bite, the band are good, raw live sound and basic production but the band carry it all – yep, this is basic striped down punk rock and there ready for yer, go grab it – www.serpentone.com