On Zoo Psychology, Ex Models chose to title one of their songs "Hott 4 Discourse". Like many of their songs, it's an attention-deficient, disjointed, yelpy plate of noise with guitars popping out all around like switchblades, erections, or eyeballs. Both title and song illustrate the NYC quartet's insatiable hunger for straight-up, gunky rock 'n' roll sex appeal, tempered by straight-up, gunky academic interchange. It's not a mild pairing, but Ex Models are panting for the bombast, hold the fancy mannerisms, thanks. This spastic steez goes for the throat of French post-structuralist theory, then tries to stick in a wayward tongue. Really. What else did you think "Ex Models" meant?
Since Other Mathematics, their 2001 Ace Fu debut, the band has not only dumped a bassist (Mike Masiello was replaced by The Seconds' Zach Lehrhoff) but mostly left their art-funk sound behind, too, allowing their new record to shiver and sweat in its own ragged chunks of jittery riffs and self-mocking, flesh-searing staccato vocals. Too clever to be speared with the "no wave" dart, but too abrasive and irreverent to land under any other umbrella, Zoo Psychology is something like a highly developed version of what's currently happening in the Midwest noize scene, plus the ghost of Oingo Boingo. It swims in complex musical ideas, which are in turn presented skeletally enough that, for the most part, you can even actually figure out what the fuck is going on.
That is, assuming you have the ability to stop time. A full fifteen songs play out in a mere thirty minutes, and Zoo Psychology's refrains are faster, shorter, and more efficient than ever. Edge-of-yr-seat time signatures spark into dizzying guitar bombs, occasionally giving way to a few short, grating jams and highly tense, 30-second drum bashings. Ex Models' world is always on the verge of stepping on a mine-- even their girlish vocal mannerisms (e.g. the fanciful cooing falsettos of Lehrhoff and guitarist/singer Shahin Motia) can't tempt this apocalypse party into a midnight cocktail. On "Zoo Love", the boys sass in unison like they think they're junior high cheerleaders/50s R&B; singers doing time in the National Guard as the instruments grind out a simple but bratty little strut. I have no idea what the lyrics are, because they're sung with appropriately sloppy, mushy mouths and: THERE IS NO ACCOMPANYING LYRIC SHEET!, though I could make out the phrases "funky and twist" and "noise if it gets too loud," which both seem to be the illustrative fragments of the band's musical thesis, however subconscious.
Did you ever see Bela Tarr's brilliant film The Werckmeister Harmonies, which was (generally) about the peace and clarity possible after the total destruction of everything? Yeah, well, this is sorta like that. Ex Models are only happy after all pretense of calm has been shattered, bashed, kicked in, crumbled, and twisted 'round their heads like a helicopter. They sound like they're vandalizing something, or about to, or just building up the courage to go balls-to-the-wall loco. That this band can be utterly in sync and on the pants-peeing edge at once, plus presenting entire philosophical and mathematical principles under the guise of sexually charged, aggressive post-punk, while still having enough humor to title their problems "Hey Boner" and "Brand New Panties" is the answer to a question only Guy Debord could present. Tres incroyable.
