Scarling. - Sweet Heart Dealer
Review by : Shawn Delaney

Rating: 4 out of 5 Shoes

“The Heaviest in Swirl-Rock”
Mar 23, 2004

I took a try on Scarling. because I’d heard that they compare favorably to 90’s shoegaze faves Lush, as in “Lush on steroids”. I’m not sure that’s the best description of this 5-piece LA band; to me they’re more like “Babes in Toyland with guitar pedals”. One could also describe them as a more muscular version of dreampop group Alison’s Halo. Which is to say, female vocals which move from caressing to wailing, paired with dark, noisy, heavy, phasey, swirly guitars, all with a slightly gothy hue. Suffice to say Scarling. pretty much rocks the proverbial house.

I’m not familiar with singer Jessicka’s former band Jack Off Jill (is anyone?), but she, along with guitarist/musical mastermind, Christian Hejnal, make up the backbone of the group. Jessicka evidently felt it necessary to get her lyrical points across with highly bizarre song titles and vocal content, which isn’t to say that she doesn’t have a killer set of pipes, because she does…check out the terrific range of voice and emotion on album epic/centerpiece ‘Alexander the Burn Victim’ (which, incidentally sounds a lot like Velour 100 on, ahem, fire).

‘Crispin Glover’ is the best tribute to one of my favorite freakshows since the immortal Warlock Pinchers’ ‘Where the Hell is Crispin Glover?’. “Crispin Glover, save us all!” indeed. It sounds corny, but in the context it’s really freakin’ cool. Especially if you like Crispin Glover, as you all should. Both the mighty opener ‘The Last Day I Was Happy’ and ‘Black Horse Riding Star’ feature some swell face-tearing distorted bass, although there are a few too many “f you’s!” featured in the latter for my taste. Single ‘Band Aid Covers the Bullet Hole’ is a fine track, although when Jessicka sings “say hello to my little friend” I can’t help but think of Weird Al’s UHF. Ah well.

With a stingy 7 tracks and barely 30 minutes of music, it’s hard to call Sweet Heart Dealer an LP. (How about an ELP?) Some might say that Scarling. is ostensibly trying too hard (or maybe just too pretentious; check out the period at the end of their name). To those people I say, stop looking at their goofy long-haired bowl haircuts and silly makeup and just crank the album already! Even with some initial strikes against them, Scarling. puts on a hell of a beautiful racket, as well as several albums worth of great, noisy tunage.

The final hours of Jesus of Nazareth, from his doubts in the Garden of Gethsemane to his crucifixion on Golgotha, rendered in excruciatingly graphic, apocalyptic detail.

Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ is a movie that has stirred vigorous controversy in nearly every quarter of American life, a bold, confrontational exercise in redefining current religious discourse. Gibson’s most interesting accomplishment, in fact, has been his ability to promote this movie at a vulnerable time in the life of the United States, when the nation is in conflict with terrorists who use religious dread to motivate their soldiers, and all good presidential candidates must give the correct answer if asked about their devotion to God, which they most certainly will be if they don’t volunteer. In such an atmosphere, with ticket sales soaring beyond all reasonable expectations and film critics scrambling to become biblical authorities before their deadlines, it’s almost impossible to give the film any kind of objective critique.

Nevertheless, I’m going to try. Mel and his Passion deserve the same balanced consideration as any other film in our Age of Hype. That is to say, before trashing or praising any movie, it’s important to examine the various elements of the movie itself, from the all-important screenplay to the director’s creation of an onscreen world and the contributions of his collaborators, to look beyond the surface of the movie, including its controversies, and discover its real merits as a piece of filmmaking. (more…)