Purling Hiss
Hissteria
Richie Records
Purling Hiss’
Hissteria
is one of the finest
records you could
ever hope to blast
from a Camaro,
Barracuda, or Boss
302 Mustang . . .
or at least the finest in recent memory. If
that distinction suggests it’s some kind of
exercise in Grand Funk resurrection, well,
you’re 50 percent right.
Hissteria is brimming
with Motor City riffery fished from a
murky pond polluted by the melted vinyl of
old Stooges, Alice Cooper, and Bob Seger
System LPs. It’s also fired by some of the
most unhinged wah torture since the mighty
Comets on Fire funked up the Japanese psychedelic
punk fury of High Rise.
In the tradition of both High Rise and
the Comets first record,
Hissteria is gloriously
recorded with total disregard for any AOR
notions of high fidelity. There’s probably not
a single instrument on this LP that wasn’t
recorded completely in the red through some
dust-, nicotine-, and fried-chicken-grease-encrusted
analog desk to an equally decrepit
reel-to-reel 4-track. And that makes it even
more remarkable that these heavy grooves and
tunes come through loud and clear. Some of
it can be chalked up to a vague familiarity in
some riffs. “Down on the Delaware River,”
for instance, is a strutting twist on Iggy & the
Stooges’ “Penetration” splattered with searing
wah throws and daggers of squealing feedback.
“Whipple Dam” sounds like Bill Ward
and Geezer Butler sparring with a crazed
gaggle of hardcore kids after a week of ingesting
Twinkies and RC Cola.
There’s absolutely nothing subtle or timid
about
Hissteria, but it’s far from joyless
guitar-punk nihilism. This is a muscle-car
cruising record
par excellence that, behind
the lo-fi barrage, swings and shimmies like
a killer Creedence single. It makes about 90
percent of the last year’s rock ’n’ roll sound
about as exciting as a wet ramen noodle on
Wonder bread.