Track Of The Day: In The Black

Sleazegrinder brings you today’s completely free Track Of The Day, courtesy of In The Black! Click here for previous Tracks Of The Day.

I’ll admit it took me a while to actually sit down and listen to In the Black’s debut EP, “Iota”, but that’s mostly because its got a seahorse on the cover. A yellow one, no less. I mean, you should see some of the CD covers that pile up on my desk. It’s all naked chicks in bondage and fire and tattooed monsters giving the finger. But then I talked to the fellas in the band, and they assured me they were at least a 6 out of 10 on the Satanic scale, so I gave ‘em a listen.

Turns out, the fuckers know how to kick out the jams. Iota’s got four tracks of varying length, style, and ferocity, ranging from the full-bore slash n’ burn of Blindman to the desperate stoner-punk of the title track, bashed out in a five-minute super-deluxe live rendition. In the Black claim The Stooges, MC5 and Nirvana as primary influences, and you can hear all of that, but there’s also a bubbling-under of 80’s punk dissonance – I’m thinking Husker Du and Squirrel Bait, but I’m probably digging too deep – and a Helmet-esque chug that moves things along with motor-driven precision. These dudes would have fit in perfectly in the early 90’s, sandwiched on a mind-blowing bill with, say, Nymphs, Life Sex and Death, and Underneath What. They’ve just got that jittery, bad-drugs vibe. Young men with big guitars and crazy ideas.

So, who are they? Three dudes from London and a Kiwi on drums. I am assuming, given these ridiculous times, that their name was chosen for its irony. They prefer Joan Jett to Lita Ford, drinking to fighting (although one usually leads to another with these lads) and they think Withnail and I is fuckin’ hilarious. Brits have a strange sense of humor.

What else? Well, let’s pick their brains a bit:

What’s there been more of in this band so far, puke or blood?
Blood, definitely. We’ve shed bucketfuls of the stuff trying to get this band to succeed.

Aside from yourselves, who’s cool around town?
Living in London, every fucker you meet thinks they’re the coolest guy around. But the majority of them are in shitty indie bands playing gingly guitars, and they all sound exactly the same as each other. The coolest guys we’ve met are the ones trying to create music with some bollocks.

What, in your estimation, is the new Porn? Rollerderby? World of Warcraft? Pills of some sort?
Music. We can’t get enough of it. There’s so much to listen and learn from. When we were 14, the answer probably would have been different.

One last question, as it seems to be bothering Classic Rock readers quite a bit these days – The Prodigy: Rock or Not Rock?
Not Rock.

Wrong, but fair enough. I think that pretty much covers it. In the Black are currently writing, recording, and playing at a pisshole near you (providing you live in London), so visit ‘em on the web and sample their retro-swelter rock goodness. And please do so post-haste, because for the next week, In the Black are offering a free download of their ultra-mega ok hit Blindman for all Classic Rock readers. If you like it, snatch up the EP on I Tunes or buy them booze or whatever.

Download In the Black’s Blindman!

http://www.myspace.com/intheblackband

-Sleaze