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diverisons
Curl Up and Die
digs new niche
By Greg Smith
On-line Forty-Niner
At a recent show
in Anaheim, Las Vegas band Curl Up and Die's lead singer (or
screamer) bled on the stage. Literally. Half way through the
band's first song. Mike Minnick screamed and performed with
such intensity, that almost immediately his mouth was spewing
blood all over his microphone.
This image may give some idea of the intensity found on Curl
Up and Die's new record "Unfortunately We're Not Robots"
on Revelation Records.
Curl Up and Die is about as hard as you can be without falling
into the stereotypical trappings of genres. They blend metal
riffing with hardcore sensibilities and a mildly twisted sense
of humor to create one of the freshest sounds in hard music.
As much as radio stations and MTV like to say that nü-metal
bands like Linkin Park and Staind are hard they are not. These
bands are like Neil Diamond compared to Curl Up and Die.
"Unfortunately We're Not Robots" begins four five-second-long
songs that are virtually the same except for the lyrics. Put
together, the screams meld into the phrase "we are all
dead" which, when separated, is the title of the four
tracks.
From the get go, Curl Up and Die lays it on heavy and fast.
The first nine songs together are only two minutes longer
than the tenth song, "You'd Be Cuter If I Shot You in
the Face," which clocks in at over eight minutes.
"You'd Be Cuter If I Shot You in the Face" is a
perfectly placed respite in the middle of the disk. The band
calms down just for a little while so listeners can come down
from the barrage of fury that they have already been through.
But no sooner does that track end than "Make Like a Computer
and Get With the Program" begins. This is a traditional
hardcore song wrought with Minnick's throaty screams, guitarist
Matt Fuchs' metal riffing and Jesse Fitts grinding beats.
One of the more notable attributes of Curl Up and Die is the
band's sense of humor. The members of the band are not out
to change the world or spout about politics, the devil or
Jesus. They are out to have fun. They even took their band
name from a Las Vegas hair salon called Curl Up and Dye.
Minnick is an avid comic book fan and this love shows up in
his lyrics, his numerous super hero tattoos and his song titles
like the vicious "Doctor Doom, A Man of Science, Doesn't
Believe in Jesus, Why the Fuck Should You."
Speaking of song titles, Minnick allegedly wrote all the titles
before writing any lyrics and then wrote lyrics that had very
little to do with the titles themselves. He just thought that
having a song title like "On the Run From Johnny Law
Ain't No Trip to Cleveland" was pretty funny. It is funny.
According to a source close to the band, Minnick is planning
on basing the lyrical scheme of the bands next record entirely
on comic books.
I'd like to see that tubby guy in Staind try and do that.
But this humorous outlook and overall lack of seriousness
is what endears Curl Up and Die as a band. They play furiously
hard and heavy music but keep their tongues firmly in their
cheeks enough so as not to fall into the pretentiousness that
so many hardcore and metal bands fall into.
"Unfortunately We're Not Robots" is a winner.
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Revelations
Records
Curl Up and Die is, from left to right, Matt
Fuchs, Jesse Fitts, Mike Minnick and Gavin Nelson.
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