Noise freaks Baboon get no respect; maybe that's rightfully so. This oh-so-agitated quartet from Texas seem to have nothing to be happy about in life, so they record random guitar chords and kitchen noises, while screaming about dead relationships and the angst that comes from having your shorts pulled down everyday in gym class. Life's hard.
The most surprising thing about Baboon is that they are sometimes good. Their album Secret Robot Control starts out with the driving, head-bashing "Night of the Long Knives", but from there the mix is uneven. It is possible to experiment with noise and still be musical, but these fellows haven't learned the trick yet. These short, aggressive anthems to the alternative-rock-isn't-alternative-enough crowd succeed sometimes, as on "You and I", but there is really not enough substance here to justify a whole album.
To their credit, the incredible intensity of Baboon comes across loud and clear through their music. These are four hyper guys - vocalist Andrew Huffstetler actually sprained his knee in the studio while recording - and you can tell it by listening to them. Also notable about Baboon is their brief cameo on a recent episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger." Chuck Norris hated them.
It's hard to recommend this album wholeheartedly, because there are so many appliances laying around my house that can make sounds more compelling than this. But if somebody were to give you the album for free, or if you were to find it stuck in a pile of old discarded rags, you might consider taking it home.
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