Pink and Brown - Final Foods
(ToYo)

I was introduced to Pink & Brown's music by seeing them play at the Women's Resource Center at Yale. Pink has a wireless microphone taped to the inside of his mask, which he screams into, so the vocals are completely indiscernible shrieks, and live, they were nearly inaudible. So anyway, they're playing, and Pink is climbing the walls (while playing guitar) and wandering through the crowd and of course they're very loud. During one of the breaks between songs, someone asks if they could turn it down a little (the cops had come by and were suspicious of what was going on), so Pink offers to help by turning down the vocals a little. Hilarious.

After another song ends, Pink drops his guitar and dives into the drums, scattering them and throwing any part of them he can get his hands on. Brown responds by lunging for Pink's guitar and throws it against the wall a few times. After they'd gotten that out of their system they go back to play again, but the snare had been broken, and they have to cut the set short. I walked away from the show thoroughly satisfied. Seeing the grimaces on the faces of the volunteers over the display of raw male aggression at the Women's Resource Center was worth the small price of admission alone.

Enough about their show. Their album, Final Foods captures the same energy, but without the funny banter or crazed antics. The vocals are more audible, but they're not integral enough to really make much difference. There are a few exceptions, for example, "Two Clicks Communicator" has a vocal melody that moves their music beyond that of a noisy and chaos-hungry Oxes to a more "metal" Arab on Radar. There are bands who have similar ideas who are far more exciting (Arab on Radar, US Maple, Oxes, etc), but with song titles like "Soccer Moms" and "Je Suis Nasty," shouldn't we at least give Pink & Brown a chance?

sean hammond 2002 jun 7