Wine Lips: TV Dinner
(Stomp)
LP | DL
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Iggy Pop-endorsed Toronto gonzo-fuzz-garage merchants Wine Lips return with TV Dinner; another cathartic blast to soothe your everyday frustrations.
Last time we heard from Wine Lips, they were frying our already shrivelled brains on the excellent Super Mega Ultra after having blown up internationally on the garage-punk scene. Now the duo of Cam Hilborn (guitar, bass, vocals) and Aurora Evans (drums, vocals) – bolstered to a four-piece live – are back with TV Dinner, another smash-and-grab riot through the seedy underworld of our everyday, one in which we are buried in anticipation over realisation, greed over ethics, and, ultimately, distraction over participation.
Shooting straighter than on previous outings, the band rocket through thirteen blasts of mind-flaying, fuzz-drenched, riotous rock n roll. Kicking things off with Cut It, they are in serious Hives territory, albeit fed through a zombie-infected rage as Hilborn sings of the need to tune back in to what is going on around us. The temptation to chemically and socially block out the world can be strong nowadays, but that is exactly where the iron heels want us. Wine Lips are here to help us blast back.
From then on, pure insanity ensues as they fire through Projector, Evans’ first voice to the fore with the band an aural delight. Her wired and fired delivery fits perfectly with the chaos that the band create. It is hyper and hits. She is back on the mic on Thirst Trap, this time the duo calling and responding on a song that rallies against the current drug du jour as they racket through with an energy that would put most band to shame.
No one needs a doctor because everyone’s an expert
Trolls and bots are calling all the shots
The nations going down because everybody’s brainwashed
Short-form content rules. It stokes the fires and the liars, and leaves us stuck in Skinner’s box.
On songs like Trip To The Doctor and Giant Man Baby, they roll in a deeper groove, one that seeps inside you to move you from within. No prizes for guessing who they are taking aim at in the latter, a note of hope in the lyrics that one day the man-child’s rule will end. Meanwhile, though, we suffer as the ghouls line their pockets. Semi-Detached Furnished Home sets it out for all to revel in. No money for rent, for petrol, for food. Heat or eat, they rocket through their rage against the current state of the world for the next generations in a riff-filled gem.
All that isn’t to say that they don’t know how to drop in some great alt-garage-new wave, If You Don’t Know the case in point. It is a phenomenally fun blast that will no doubt set their ever-growing live shows on fire, as will the, again, Hive-like Head On Backwards.
Shorn of some of the more garage-psych of their previous records, TV Dinner sees Win Lips at their leanest and most direct. Another triumph.
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All words by Nathan Whittle. Find his Louder Than War archive here.
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