Cheveu - 'Dog/Make My Day' (S-S)

'Dog' begins with a dirty casio beat, straightforward and bold. Then a guitar riff that you've heard before, somewhere, and some harsh barking megaphone vocals. When the chorus hits it's all fun, an infectious apocalyptic vision. The guitars never stop going dung-dung-dung-dung-dung like immense raindrops. Flipside 'Make My Day' is a longer but the beat doesn't waver either; the guitars are thicker and strummed, and occasional organ-keyboard vamps seek out the white light. The vocals are gruff, barking "make my day", a mockery of tough-guy heroics. Other guitars (or maybe that's a bass) add nice thickening when needed, a nice gesture. For the end the beat opens up, but the song somehow becomes more claustrophobic, drowning in spattering of vocal babble and electronic processing. This was released in 2006, and to me, it announced that the new leaders of line-in GarageBand bedroom avant-punk had arrived, and they were French. Whouda thought!