Anyone who remembers the early glory days of hardcore punk in the 1980s can tell you that the best bands on the scene were also the ones who outgrew the limitations of the form. The manic tempos, unrelenting guitar downstroke, and ranting vocals were fun for a while, but they were also a dead end for the smarter and more ambitious musicians, and
Black Flag,
Hüsker Dü,
the Minutemen,
the Meat Puppets, and plenty of their peers found themselves exploring different territory after a while. So it is with
OFF!,
Keith Morris' incendiary punk band who -- from the roaring fury of the music to the Raymond Pettibon artwork on their covers -- have paid explicit homage to the salad days of hardcore, specifically the first era of
Black Flag (he was their first lead singer), even more so than the earliest work of the
Circle Jerks (which he founded immediately after leaving
BF).
OFF!'s third album, 2022's
Free LSD, is still loud, hard-edged, and manic. It's also their longest and most complex effort to date. While most of the tracks on their first two LPs struggled to crack the 60-second mark, this time ten of the 16 numbers are over two minutes, and the songs and arrangements are more full-bodied, still raving at full strength but with a more significant metal and hard rock punch in
Dimitri Coats' guitar and more twists and turns in the still-streamlined melodies.
OFF! also have a new rhythm section this time out, with
Autry Fulbright II of
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead on bass and drummer
Justin Brown, who has backed up
Thundercat but also worked with a number of significant jazz artists, including
Terence Blanchard and
Esperanza Spalding. The new players, especially
Brown, give their performances a variety of sonic color and dynamics that's more artful than
OFF! have previously offered us, and
Morris' vocals, while little different than before, seem even more focused in their pitch of sheer belief. As befits the title,
Free LSD finds room for psychedelia in the sonic free-for-alls that bob in and out of the music between tracks, with lots of buzzy electronic noodling and occasional blurts of free jazz-influenced sax washing over the transitions, like some variation of the "Free-Form Freak Out" passages on
the Red Crayola's The Parable of Arable Land mixed with
the Stooges' "L.A. Blues." As good as
OFF!'s previous releases were, they (in classic hardcore style) sounded like they were produced in hit-and-run style, with the band cutting them live with minimal overdubs.
Free LSD, on the other hand, aims to be something more; in its intensity and vision, it succeeds, and it's a gloriously weird triumph. ~ Mark Deming