Search - Happy Go Licky :: Happy Go Licky Will Play

Pre-Fugazi Improv. Madness

Jonathan Bartlett | Northampton, MA United States | 05/26/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Happy Go Licky is composed of the same four people who made up Rites of Spring, and is the fifth or sixth project involving Brendon Canty and Guy Picciotto before the formation of Fugazi. While previous projects were punk and hardcore based, incorporating varied degrees of pop sensibility and heart-wrenching passion, HGL is notable for being a band that only recorded it's live shows (no studio material), and generally improvised on the same six or so minimal song structures. The band's sound looks forward to more recent Fugazi material in its art-rock tendencies--its emotionally distanced tone (much like Wire), its love of repetition and cacaphony (much like the Pop Group), and its then-unusual use of tapes in performance (like Mission of Burma). Six of these songs were released on a twelve-inch on Guy's Peterbuilt label, and along with Dischord's issuing of One Last Wish material, provide crucial insight into how individual members of Fugazi worked to expand the language of American punk into something arresting and unique, even before the formation of that band. The addition of fifteen more cuts, mainly variants of what was on the 12", round out the picture, but make for a daunting and exhausting listen (this costs them a star in my book). Most notable track on the CD (narrowly beating out an unrecognizably frantic cover of "White Lines"): "Torso Butter," a song that builds in intensity, with a high pitched "Police On My Back"-type guitar wail repeating in the background, until Guy Picciotto, railing about something he probably had just read about in philosophy class (pollute the concept, the concept that fits the image, the image that mirrors the concept...), reaches an unprecedented level of intensity. As both vocals and accompaniment hit fever pitch, the tape abruptly runs out, leaving the listener breathless, with nowhere to go but into the next track. It serves as a reminder that this is all live, of the moment, and off the cuff. Leave your expectations at the door. Brilliant and uncompromising."