Stomach Pump In Reverse

MIRACLE CHOSUKE
5-song CDR
Are we jaded yet? Not since getting tagged in the nuts with an egg at a Fast Forward show two weeks ago—who says punk isn't a threat anymore?—and not since Miracle Chosuke got their geek on at Koo's last week. Whatever we were expecting, they weren't it, and that's a great thing. First, you have five AV-club-nerd-looking guys just hammering out this tight-as-a-pair-of-Spiderman-underoos, finger-in-an-electric-socket spazz attack of pop/punk/new wave/no wave/tidal wave weirdocore, like Devo shackled to Geza X with only 24 hours to escape from the No New York compilation (and if that makes your head spin, you should listen to these guys zoom around onstage). And then you have the singer—and by singer, we mean the person most likely to have a microphone wedged in his mouth. We love this guy. He looked like Pee-wee Herman, moved like Darby Crash on a downer night, and crooned out mortally wounded lyrics like, "C'mon out and do nothing with me tonight" with a n-n-n-nervous-breakdown delivery that's not just for effect ("Are you the roadie?" we asked the girl who looked officially connected to the band. "No, I'm here to make sure the singer doesn't die," she explained—yipes!). The CD we got (five songs in seven minutes) is cuter than the live deal but still ragged around the edges enough to keep it out of pop purgatory, even if someone better tape this fiasco live to preserve the real magic. Live, these kids are a stomach pump in reverse, whipping a bunch of goo into something tasty and taut and screeching to a stop before you can close your mouth—and then you got the singer to barf it all back on you again. It's like a beautiful natural cycle, see? And these kids are just beautiful.

Info: gerchikdaniel@hotmail.com.