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Across numerous micro-projects, the home-recorded mania of Minnesota’s Msr. Connie Voltaire centers on punk smeared with smarty-pants petulance and uncontrollable “problem child” id. As Neo Neos, Voltaire’s most prolific and formidable alter ego, the line between clenched detractor and doe-eyed convert get blurrier with each new dispatch. The kind of sensory-overload gunk that Voltaire specializes in is obviously maddening, but it can be gripping as well. Could a Neo Neos album offer up any substantive answers?
In a devilish con, much of NN’s glory stems from its bizzaro-brilliant critique of the freak scene, recasting today’s ‘tweener punk/wave/HC as truly haphazard noise, a messy no-fi babel employing near-edgelord levels of antagonism and bedlam. Terms like “blown out” or “cacophonous” or even “muttonheaded” barely begin cover Voltaire’s strike, yet raving hooks are discernible amid the chaos. The whole trick-bag is inverted as well, with rhythm and bass throb being more prevalent than any requisite guitar screwing. Hell, the album opens with a galling instrumental that somehow serves as a nose-thumbing dissection of modern-day punk tropes, a theme carried throughout the program, always guided by Voltaire’s spasms and helium yowl.
Neck Chop is pleased to publish Neo Neos’ newest news as part of our year-end operations. Jucy Lucy not included. - Mitch Cardwell
Our take: Latest release, and the first on 12”, from this project. Neo Neos are punk maximalists with minimal production values, pounding out track after track of loose and cacophonous racket. Kill Someone You Hatefeatures a whopping 22 tracks, and it’s a total information overload in much the same way that the second Liquids LP (Hot Liqs Revenge, also on Neck Chop) was. As I’m listening, there’s plenty to get excited about in the gurgling cauldron of noise and feedback, but by the time I’ve played both sides of Kill Someone You Hate I feel like I’ve just binge-watched an entire season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia… my reference points are skewed and my world is no longer my own. I realize I haven’t given you any impression what this record sounds like, but it’s less about the sound and more about the experience, so if you aren’t willing to go on the whole epic journey with Neo Neos it’s probably best you stay home.