Social media has afforded musicians the luxury of endless, effortless promotion, so it’s a refreshing oddity to know absolutely nothing about a band. Apart from their fairly cryptic Facebook page, the Internet doesn’t have any information about Philadelphia’s Sun Organ or their new album, Wooden Brain. Released on Ranch Records, a primarily tape-oriented label also from Philly, Wooden Brain sounds like punk kids diving into brooding apathy. The distortion is present but the speed isn’t; it’s as if they wanted to get angry but couldn’t work up the energy, so they settled for sad complaints instead.
Sun Organ’s lyrical introversion and barely-there web presence make a ton of sense less than a minute into the album, as the lead track’s chorus repeats, “Hell is other people who care about you.” With the in-vogue fuzz as its vehicle, “Other People” and its too-cool-for-school vocals are aggressively indifferent, and produce a peculiarly endearing coldness.
Rounding out the end of the record, “Ass Kickin’ Rock’n’Roll” isn’t as incongruous of a title as it may seem. While it’s not going to kick anyone’s ass itself, its deliberate, hazy guitars and weakly delivered lines like, “I stopped remembering my dreams some time ago,” hint that something (or someone) has kicked Sun Organ’s ass. This is the all-encompassing sentiment of Wooden Brain, a record tie-dyed with nearly every shade of distress and loneliness. It’s a compact token of isolation, sealed with a bow in its final track.
According to Sun Organ’s Facebook, Wooden Brain will be out on tape “soon” on Ranch Records.
