The Lowdown "Y Is a Crooked Letter" - Crazy freak-out noise rockers from Santa Cruz. This is their second album and it's quite nice. You'll hear lots of squealing/screeching/distorted guitar, pounding crazy drums, lots of bleeps and bloops from the keyboards, some squawnking horns, and overblown yelled vocals. The entire sound is very dirty and noisy (and also a little lo-fi since it was recorded on a 4-track). Some songs are more weird and total noise fests, others are more rocking, and there are even some crazy dance numbers. It's a lot of fun and highly recommended for people wanting some totally crazy noise-rock.
My Picks: 3, 4, 13
Katie P. 2/19/04

1) Starts with some high-pitched droning. Then the drums come in with an uptempo beat. Loud, droning, and very noisy. Crazy vocals that are spoken/screamed. Slows down with about a minute left and adds a lot more keyboard noises.
2) Short piece with squeeling horns (maybe a sax) and banging piano.
3) Uptempo and almost bouncy. Noisy and very distorted. This is kind of fun. Vocals spoken/yelled and difficult to understand.
4) Starts with keyboard craziness and yelled vocals. Uptempo and quite cute. Sound is really dirty and overblown. This is funny.
5) Vocals come in with no music and repeat the same things with effects or something. Highly weird.
6) Looping freak out guitar with someone screaming "Oh yeah" over and over. This is trippy.
7) Starts quiet and then keyboards come blooping in. Short instrumental.
8) Takes a little while to start with random noises until song starts up with a midtempo beat. Pounding keyboard, pounding drums, droning/screeching guitar, and sounds like female vocals just making sounds (no real lyrics).
9) Nice tribal pounding drums interrupted by drum machine here and there. Uptempo until the vocals come in and then it slows down to midtempo. Cool guitar riff going on. Fcc: says "fuck."
10) Starts with very distorted vocals. Indeed it's very hard to decipher anything (check the title). That's it, just spoken word.
11) Crazy beat that kind of goes all over the place with weird bloopy keyboards. Makes you feel kind of disoriented and drunk.
12) Fades in with a strange far away pounding noise and other banging. After about 1 minute some vocals come in, but it's really creepy. He says "Young Lovers" and then laughs over and over.
13) Starts with a solid drumbeat and some horn bloops with keyboards. Ooo, this is kind of fun and dancy. It's still got plenty of noise in there too. Instrumental.
14) Uptempo with a cool looping distorted keyboard sound. Yelled vocals with weird lyrics. Slows abruptly in the middle slowly builds but never gets anywhere.
15) Strange almost laughing sound from the guitar. Then some spacey noises from the keyboards. Short.
16) Bloopy and blippy. Midtempo and very distorted. Loud pounding drums. Fcc: says "fuck."