SATURDAY VIDS TO GET SPACE NEEDLED TO: AKIMBO FEST

August 14th, 2010 at 5:04pm
Kip Wingerschmidt

Seattle’s Akimbo seem like they should be easy to classify, but many subtle elements of various aggressive sub-genres find their way into the band’s crushing sound and offer inviting ears a few curve-balls along the way. Guitarist Aaron Walters [one of ELEVEN axe-slingers over the band’s career (!)] claims in the below interview that the explanation started out as “Black Sabbath meets Black Flag meets The Melvins”, which is pretty spot-on in representing the stony thump-grooves/rawkish punk asthetic/noiseful attributes, but I feel compelled to throw a couple more names in the hat, most notably Motorhead (so many parts are teeming with Lemmy’s uptempo forward-thrusting momentum) and local angular heart-core heros Botch [whose bassist Brian Cook went on to pummel in MS faves These Arms Are Snakes (RIP) and space-proggateers Russian Circles]. Bluesy, fuzzed-out Zeppelin-y jamouts meld with abrasive sludge to forge a style that is instantly familiar but somehow unexpectedly original in the songwriting.

These daze Akimbo has refined their sound and create a more soothing heavy-scape, as exemplified by their most recent 2008 album Jersey Shores, “a concept album inspired by a series of mysterious shark attacks which occurred on the beaches of New Jersey in 1916. This latest effort showed a substantial deviation in style from previous recordings, which can be attributed in part to Aaron Walters’ contributions as a guitarist/writer.” (Wiki) Original founding members Jon Weisnewski (bass, vocals) and Nat Damm (drums) continue to sustain a furious and punishing rhythm section while exploring new textures throughout.

Funny that they released this album the year before another Jersey Shore became such a huge worldwide phenomenon — I’m sure Akimbo has been hearing all about that for quite some time now, probably both to their amusement and chagrin.

Speaking of which, have you seen poof’d tanster tits Snooki get punched in the face from last season? Now that’s metal.

Visit Akimbo on Everyone’sSpace

Read previous Akimbo posts by Vince and moi, and Christopher Roddy’s review of Jersey Shores