Search - Dead C :: White House

The End of Rock Music & Why We Don't Need It Anymore

Susan Atkins | The Great State of Michigan | 05/01/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Some joker I know once called this CD "a failed rock album." If so, then success is entirely overrated.Actually, I think the Dead C. knew exactly what they were doing. They simply upped the cheeky ...humor quotient by creating an album that handily adopts assorted aspects of the rock idiom yet sounds unlike any previous example of the genre.I prove my point:Track 1 is clearly the 'prog intro' yet simps like Yes or whomever never had the moxie to even dare to scare the ... out of their audience like this. I had this piece of ominous synthgurgle on my answering machine for a while & every message included the inquiry of "Are you alright?" If you need a comparision, it is probably most analogous to the organ discord that begins the 3rd Soft Machine album albeit in a more focused blast.Track 2 is the pinnacle of 'rock' discombobulation, verging on disintegration yet never quite making it there. On occasion, it reminds one of a Buttholy take on "Black Juju" or something. Most o' the time though, it can't be referenced to anything but a complete schism from all commonly accepted standards of reality. It's hard to fathom that a mere guitar, drums, & synth could cause such hazy disorientation. Regardless, tis a swell ether for the next time you're in the market for a brainsoak.Track 3 is the 'midtempo power ballad' filled with Michael Morley's patented forlorn strumming/mumbling & lyrical ennui, anchored by Robbie Yeats at his "John Bonham on a cardboard box" best, & punctuated by Bruce Russell's atonal bursts. It's their "Goodbye to Romance" really. Whereas that song just serves as a good excuse for a bathroom break, this one'll honestly make you want to cry. Unashamedly. In public even.Track 4 lasts about as long as it took me to write this sentence.Track 5 is easily the 'lift your lighters in the air anthem.' The song for men with mullets, Members Only jackets, & aviator sunglasses that live to play air guitar in their underwear & bang their fists against the dashboard of a Z28. But only in that mysterious quantum reality where Jandek is worshipped like a god, Omit is bigger than Britney Spears will ever be, & the handsome men of the Shadow Ring are the teenage girl lust objects of choice.Track 6 is the appropriately titled epic "Outside" & that it is. It sneakily starts as a 'hands-swaying in unison' rock song. One can even discern the words "baby" & "alright." (Had they included "unh" & yeah", they would've covered the entire rock vernacular.)This lasts about 5 minutes. The remaining 15 or so map solar systems not acknowledged by most astronomers & sounds more otherworldly than any frigging Pink Floyd album you ever wasted money on. The most amazing part is how fluid the transistion is. By the time the song ends, you won't remember where it began. Or care really. All you know (or even want to know) is that you've heard one of the single GREATEST songs of your young life (or old life as the case may be). Not merely the end of an album but of a whole archaic way of looking at music.In short, this is the Dead C. at their most charming & perplexing (these two qualities work hand in glove with these guys), creating a whole new genre of 'rock' by destroying all the old forms. You won't miss them either."

A new divide

Susan Atkins | 11/21/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"As a record, this is pretty good. It features all the classic Dead C 'hooks' we had come to know and love: cardboard box guitar sounds, murky underwater vocals, drear and heavy mood evocations. But it also features some of the techniques that it turned out would characterise the Dead C's subsequent releases: finally, the experimentalism of HoD and Gate infiltrates the Dead C, giving rise to the epic 'Outside' and 'The New Snow'. Seen in the light of the similarly packaged 'Repent', an astonishing tour-de-force of mprov noise-rock, we can see this album as more significantly a transition point for the Dead C. A transition between records filled with tracks like 'Your Hand' and 'bitcher' (the most pop moment here), to 'Repent' and 'Tusk'. Which is not to say it isn't good in itself. Just that it is a little confused about what it is doing as a record."

Dead C for beginners and afficianados alike

slappy | somewhere else | 12/08/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Although WHITE HOUSE has only 6 tracks, it is a substantial listen. While many...well, most Dead C albums turn noise into a pacifier, the WHITE HOUSE actually turns that well-loved drone into POP songs. But these are not your father's pop songs. One could argue they are not even songs, per se. Three tracks: "Your Hand" "Bitcher" "Outside" are about as pop as anything Dead C will ever do, and they are the backbone of the WHITE HOUSE album. Approach Dead C like a hypnotism and you'll fall in love."