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“All My Heroes are Weirdos” - !!!
(Words/music: !!!, available on Myth Takes, Warp 2007)

Lately, I feel like I’ve been paying a lot of attention to formative songs in my personal listening history.  It’s strange referring to these important musicians as “heroes” when I’m not writing or (currently) performing music, but there’s a definite element of admiration involved.  If nothing else, I admire their innovation – at least innovation in the sense that many of my favorites willfully went outside of their comfort zone.  Whether it’s through risk-taking or pushing the envelope, these are reminders that excellence often requires to step out of our comfort zone.  I’ve been told (more when I was younger) that these people produced “weird music,” and I think this is the reason they captivated me in the first place.  Even if I never got around to starting that noise rock band, there’s a strange comfort in watching something beautiful come out of something unconventional.

!!! pay homage to odd idols appropriately by turning a cacophony of jarring sounds into a fluid groove.  They play funk like a rusty bicycle – some of the parts might not please the senses, but together it’s a machine that moves adeptly as it weaves in and out of traffic.  Among others, the Talking Heads’ glitch-funk from the Remain in Light era serves as a prominent touchstone of weirdness.  Like the ‘Heads, !!! try to cloud the core of the song in an unconventional fog.  However, like their weird heroes, the groove cuts right through, letting the freak-show flood light illuminate the dance floor for the rest of us.

More on !!!: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm