Black Bananas

Electric Brick Wall

Drag City

Street: 06.24

Black Bananas = TOBACCO + The Kills

Jennifer Herrema has created another scum-rock masterpiece. This time, she’s stripped down her version of electronic metal, exposing all the wires. There’s some serious guitar shredding and some truly psychedelic tones that melt all over you all at once. Herrema is a groovy diva and the queen of trash, and it shows with her tunes. Although it blurs genre distinctions, there is strength pushing the music along. The opening track, “Powder8 Eeeeeeeeight,” starts hard with some slippery power chords and hypnotic synth work. All the way through, Herrema delivers stellar vocals that are distorted to perfection. If you’re looking for a cotton candy, bubble gum sound, you’d be better off looking elsewhere. But Electric Brick Wall is the kind of sweet that hurts your teeth, like acid sugar cubes—delicious and perfect for sharing. –Kamryn Feigel