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Justin Has
Rats: Heres and Theres
Theres an ever-present faction in music-making today, a vocal minority who argues for minimalism. They argue that studio gadgeteering and witchery produce albums which, from that day forward, can never be reproduced live. While I could argue until I was blue in the face both about how actually talented artists CAN reproduce these sounds live and also how rejecting the technology is in line with musical-Amishism (do the Amish read this website? Bah!), thats really not the point of this review. No, the point of this review is to subject readers to my opinion on the new album by Justin Has Rats. Let me say it this way: I understand what Justin and his rats are going for here and there. I think I do, anyway. Its artistic, a denial of things like remixing equipment and working microphones. Its a step back from the threshold of completely edited, good music and a throwback to the days of jug bands and tissue boxes with rubberbands stretched over them. I think Justin is making a point with this album: that music does not require loads of money and equipment to be good. And Justins idea, if that is what hes going for, is a sound one. On the other hand, Justin, who left the band Born With a Tail to pursue a collegiate careen, may just not have the money for things like guitar strings or anything beyond a Fisher-Price tape recorder (the one with the big shiny blue buttons!). Unreasonably harsh? Maybe. Justin, unlike myself, is at least out there making music and trying. In his own way, he is contributing art, and contributing to The Art. But this Lo-Fi Rock album is almost unlistenable at times, with harsh recording quality and off-tempo riffs, strange and often nauseating key changes or mood changes, and too-lo-fi vocals. Let me put it this way: I once saw a one-armed homeless man blowing a whistle non-stop on a streetcorner and asking passersby for money for his songs. That was not music, no matter what the effort. Justin Has Rats: more musical than a one-armed homeless man blowing a whistle.
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