About fifteen years ago, I debated a couple of dowdy New York State senators on the topic of warning labels for music. The dowdier of the two read a portion of the Dead Kennedys' song “I Kill Children” as an example of why such labels were necessary, insinuating that lead singer/songwriter Jello Biafra was really into murdering kids.
Of course, “I Kill Children” is satire, like most punk lyrics at the time. Since then, satire has become a lost art in much of today’s new punk. However, up and coming Chicago punks, The Falcon, are resuscitating the form extremely successfully and their new full-length Unicornography is a masterpiece of cheeky humor.
Throughout Unicornography, vocalist/guitarist Brendan, bassist/vocalist Dan, and drummer/guitarist Neil jab at the complacency of middle class and upper middle class life in 21st century schizoid America, exploring the seamier slices of life that exist around us but get blotted from our view. It’s a treat to listen to music that borrows heavily from The Clash and late DK that’s laden with massive doses of spot on commentary about society. Standout numbers include “Building the Even More Perfect Asshole Parade”, “The Celebutard Chronicles”, “Unicorn Odyssey”, and “R.L. Burnouts, Inc.” But beyond the lyrics, what makes Unicornography special is the mixture of styles the band employs. It's not straight punk, rather a hybrid of pop, jazz, a little classical, and hardcore making a flavorful concoction that will blow your f*cking mind the first time you hear it.
The only disappointing aspect of this group is their extremely cryptic publicity vehicles. Their website hasn’t been updated yet to include info on Unicornography, and there’s almost no information about the guys on their MySpace page. They might see publicity efforts as another sign of the death of culture, or maybe Red Scare, which is distributing the album, is just too cheap to provide up to date information. But frankly, if they hadn’t sent me a review copy of the album, I wouldn’t know they existed. And that’s a goddamned shame. So whoever the lazy ass in charge of publicity is, at least make up a one-sheet for old farts like me, okay?
Lack of publicity aside, Unicornography is one badass album. Each song is a below the belt punch at the remnants of a once great society that now staggers from brain numbing consumption and useless entertainment. If the thin-skinned politicos I debated thought Jello really liked the idea of killing children, they’d think of these guys as anarchistic nihilists. And maybe that’s exactly how The Falcon needs to be thought of in order to shake us out of the cultural graveyard we’ve been buried under all these years.
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