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Piss Fuckpriest Fantastic (Haole) Of related interest: Atomic 61, dirtclodfight, The Jesus Lizard Coke? Not for this Santa. That's a 12-ounce bomb of pure Piss he's drinking on the record cover, and you should, too. While Fuckpriest Fantastic is known for hyper live shows featuring lead shouter Trevor Priest smashing tables and thrashing about the stage with body-damaging abandon, there's actually music underneath the broiling waves of noise. That's why Piss is such a refreshingly smooth drink to swallow. Despite a base composition of sharp acid and tingling carbonation, you'll find yourself hooked on the sugar hidden within. Christian Fantastic provides much of the flavor on guitar, teasing your tongue with slippery whips of dissonance, then bubbling into mouth-filling barre-chord bursts that kick like Red Bull and pack more caffeine than Jolt. When the tide subsides, you'll find the bass hanging from your uvula, drums hammering at your teeth like the Cavity Creeps and Trevor's lacerating vocals coating your tastebuds with a strong aftertaste. It won't freshen your breath, but it's not supposed to be herbal tea for hoary crumpet-munchers, now is it? Check your liver at the door, pick up Piss and chug it in one blistering gulp. Fuckpriest Fantastic plays Jan. 2 at 1201 Cafe & Lounge. See listings. John Graham Breaking God's Heart Hefner (Too Pure/Beggars Banquet) Of related interest: Belle and Sebastian, New Bad Things, Hanif Kureishi novels Check out Hefner online at: http://www.moptop.demon.co.uk/hefner/ Breaking God's Heart is close to my own heart. With more than 200 listens under my belt (no exaggeration), expressing the merits of Hefner is like explaining the pure goodness of my dog. Words just don't come close to doing this band justice. Hefner makes me feel like I'm a soaring airplane, a rumbling train and a big hungry shark eating lots of tasty small fish, all at once. Singer/songwriter Darren Hayman sounds like he is about to run out of breath but has one last thing he desperately needs to say. Girls and sex lie at the center of Hayman's lyrical themes, but his approach is sincere and cuddly, more like Jonathan Richman than some big, macho thug. He's an ace storyteller who can build simple tunes into mountains to create songs so heavenly that God himself might blush. From the first strains of the first tune, "Sweetness Lies Within," the frenetic level of melody and candor never lets up. Hayman is a Londoner in his late 20s who grew up listening to all the same stuff you and your neighbors listened to, but he never amalgamated those influences into a pulpy mush and called it lo-fi or indie rock like so many others have. He instead took the vague and indefinable thing that makes rock music great, shuffled it around in his noggin and wrote songs that broke God's heart. Alyssa Isenstein Magnum Force Heltah Skeltah (Duck Down Entaprizez) Of related interest: ATCQ, M.O.P., Boot Camp Click Hip-hop headz are often narrow minded. When an MC experiments with radio-friendly beats, we dog him out. If a crew doesn't come hard like they did on a previous joint, we dog them out. Heltah Skeltah's sophomore album, Magnum Force, will certainly receive grumbles of disapproval from those expecting another Nocturnal, the duo's 1996 rugged underground opus. Rock and Ruck remain nice on the verbals, showing signs of maturity over a broad scope of beats. They invite you into their personalities on the new joint, exploring relationships with women and the deaths of loved ones as well as the usual Brooklyn ghetto shit. Ruck vents his frustration about the relationship with his shorty on "Chicka Woo," a straight up R&B track. Rock teams up with Supreme on the beat and vocals to knockout punk MCs on "Perfect Jab," one of the illest tracks on the album. Heltah Skeltah is the first BCC group to go outside the crew for help on the mic. "Brownsville II Long Beach" features Tha Dogg Pound; the Outlawz rip up "M.F.C. Lawz" and the Method Man blesses the war call of "Gunz 'N Onez." Heltah Skeltah's Magnum Force is just as dope as their debut. Hell, it might even be better. H.V. Claytor, Jr. - - - - - - - - - - - -
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