Long Beach, CA noisemongers, Gang Wizard, are back with their fifth properly manufactured full-length in their 19 year career.
As to be expected, all the tracks on Important Picnic are completely improvised, though somehow the band intuitively takes on a punk rock verse-chorus structure in its meanderings. The result is somewhere between early Saccharine Trust and Ultrabunny with Billy Childish as producer. Where songs like “All Sorts Of Ruin,” “Ugly American” and “So What’s The Cost” show the group’s punk rock side, the dark psychedelia of “Last Stop,” the twisted sprawl of “The Fiasco” and the epic anthem of “Feeeee” confirm that there is much more going on than lo-fi production and gimmickry.
Like cubist art or a William S. Burroughs cutup, Gang Wizard successfully deconstruct punk rock and put it back together their way with little regard for what anyone else will think of the outcome. In so doing, they are actually more punk than the self-conscious peacocks who commonly define the term. Play Important Picnic when you want to annoy the mohawks and leather jackets who are too “punk” to get it.
