Slime Lush are a post-punk jam-rock band from Oklahoma, USA, and their brand of rough-and-ready rock is both easily accessible and uniquely engaging. Across the eight tracks of varying length on their debut album, "Custom Slaughter", one can find enjoyable melodies, sweet guitar hooks, and passages of more abstract and experimental music.
Opener "Nixon Peace Fingers" is a moody and slow-burning affair that often lashes out in a burst of garage rock between its more dreamy and melodic sections. Some incendiary lead guitar work makes the crescendo stellar, and the meandering, ambient outro hints at the group's more artistic notions. This outro segues into "World War XIII", which mixes touches of psychedelia with more straightforward folk-rock. The vocals here are reminiscent of They Might Be Giants, sung in a self-aware and intellectual Americana. This delivery helps hide that the singer is often out of key, and while it lends a distinctive personality and an inimitable sound, it can take a minute to get used to the woozy melodies and faltering notes. It harks back to the nonchalant attitude of alternative 80s/90s groups such as Meat Puppets and Fugazi, and this track only benefits from this personable and raw approach. At under two minutes, "Flip Flop Brunch" is the shortest track here, and its drum machine beat and keyboard sound effects make it an alluring foray into folktronica.
"Creepy National Anthem" is a pleasant indie-rock cut featuring some clever lyrics ("Stephen King nights, Steven Spielberg afternoons") and dynamic interplay between guitar and drums. Here, Slime Lush showcase their ability to spin insanely catchy melodies into a peculiar and haphazard web of psychedelic indie rock. "Super Friendly Vikings" follows a similar loose style and sees distant guitars riff out over the refrain of "I've got a bad brain buzz,".
Elsewhere, "Whiskey King" fails to cohesively merge all of its elements but provides some humorous lyrics ("Southern Comfort, there's no such thing"). "World War Eight" is a fantastic and airy rock song that drifts along on its steady ride-cymbal, cascading guitars, and some of the best vocals in this collection. The brilliantly titled closing track, "Quoting Nietzsche at a Party", is an impressive eight minutes and fourteen seconds long and isn't as bloated as its size suggests. On this track, Slime Lush are fully aware of their restrictions while wickedly executing some atmosphere-shifting psychedelic jams. And while one could evaluate the songs on a thematic level, Slime Lush would be the first to tell you, "This is no time for philosophy." Don't be the guy who quotes Nietzsche at a party. You probably can't even spell Nietzsche without looking it up. Sometimes philosophy just isn't warranted, leading this writer to an existential crisis. If writing about music is like dancing about architecture, what am I doing? I had never thought of this before, and isn't it great when music gets you to think?
"Custom Slaughter" is an odd-ball collection of obscure psychedelia, indie rock blasts, spirited cowpunk, and intellectually charged tirades on the state of the world. At its worst, the album is a slightly out-of-tune and unfocused jam. At its best, it's a quirky and brilliant buzz. Thankfully, it mostly shows its best side.
★★★½