You begin an outsider.
Talk To Your Kids About Gangs is the culmination of a recording process that began in 2003, with the line-up of Zach Hill, Dan Elkan, Rob Crow, Carson McWhirter, Jonathan Hischke, Ian Hernandez and J.R. Thompson. The group first assembled for the album Masculine Drugs, a soundtrack to a book penned by founder Zach Hill and released by Suicide Squeeze Records. On their Skin Graft debut, Holy Smokes arrive fully formed, with an album that operates on it's own terms, lines drawn, standing assuredly on it's own. Where the band's debut offered a discordant free-jazz-noise-rock shock, Talk To Your Kids About Gangs emerges as a harmonic tangle of pitches and thunder claps, that as they unravel, come into focus as intelligible, infectious oddments of grooving sonance. Make no mistake, these are songs: Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Synth, Drums, Samplers, Toys, Piano, Keyboards, Trumpet and Gadgets - no bullshit.
You begin an outsider. In passing comes familiarity, maybe not acceptance, and certainly not acquiescence. Holy Smokes have recorded a masterfully drawn, spectral broadcast; a call to arms now and forever.
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