MP3: The Bear Quartet - Weakling keep blinking
"Weakling keep blinking" is 3rd-world rock'n'roll. Imagine a band that has never actually heard rock'n'roll, but has only read about it - that's what this sounds like. The basic idioms are there, but there's something not quite right about it. You get the classic bluesy power-chord fifth-to-sixth riffing, the steady handclaps on the twos and fours. These are the basic elements of early rock, but The Bear Quartet has managed to make them sound awkward and perverted. The sound effects give it a totally creepy vibe and the instrument tones are all weird, misguided presets. I'm reminded of Stravinksy's "L'histoire du soldat" which incorporates jazz voicings despite the famed composer having never heard the stuff before. It is suggested that perhaps he had seen it written on paper, but never performed. Once again, you get many of the basic idioms of the genre, but the feel is off. Naturally, The Bear Quartet are well-versed in the ways of rock, but they manage to capture that same strange, uneasy feeling. And then they blow it up.
The Bear Quartet - Weakling keep blinking