Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys - Ruined Your Childhood

Ruined Your Childhood is a kids' album that's not meant for kids. No, really. I don't mean it's kids' music that even parents can like. I mean the opening line is "I wanna fuck myself right out of this hole." Not exactly what you want your kid sharing at preschool. Or maybe you do.

Each track is set up as a channel surfed by a kid who's mom is out shaking her ass and trying to find a man. Not all 22 tracks are songs, some are transitions between songs or intros. But the songs are one of the most disturbing that I have ever heard. It has a level of creepiness that Marilyn Manson has been working for years trying to produce. It shows off their usual folk/punk/vaudeville/noise rock on crack sound (what they call "steamcrunk") but this album is so unbelievably dark. I assumed given that it's a kids' album that's not for kids it would be tinged with the macabre but overall silly. Throughout the entire album there is this groove of pure dread. It sounds like the inside of David Lynch's brain. With song titles like "Lullaby for an Antichrist" and "Slaughterhouse Sweetheart," you kind of know what you're getting.

You can get a copy of Ruined Your Childhood for the "Name Your Own Price" option at Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys' Bandcamp page. You can also find more information on the band at their website. If you happen to be in the Boston area, go see them at the Middle East Downstairs on May 9. You can buy no fee tickets here. Finally, they just released a video for "Ourselves" off last year's Soft Time Traveler. Watch it below.

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