Growing - Dry Drunk On Woman

(Nail In The Coffin/Megablade, 2002)

IDEA: Cop drama that revolves around a forensic detective who solves crimes by licking evidence. No need to ever explain quite how that works, it’ll primarily serve as a vehicle for a few straightfaced gross-out gags per episode where the guy licks a footprint or a wound or a corpse and then offers his theories on what went down. My working title is “Taste of Justice,” but I’d be willing to consider something more literal, like “The Cop Who Licks Things,” or “Detective Tongue of New York City.” Look for it soon! On the TV!

“Dry Drunk On Woman,” the A-side of the first Growing release (a limited edition in an embossed sleeve, though a CDR reproduction has since appeared), might surprise the Kranky fans out there with its ploddingly sproingy melody and moaned vocals, all of which sounds a lot more like some nightmarish mantra than the dreamy/noisy, carefully-paced music on Soul of the Rainbow and the Harmony of Light (NOTE: COULD THIS BE DETECTIVE TONGUE’S FIRST MYSTERY???). Not the band I thought I knew; heck, I accidentally played the song at 45 RPM and deemed it an ultra-grim Animal Collective, the Froot Loops that fuel that band’s kangaroo-bounce replaced here by painkillers and booze. A curiosity at both speeds! “Residual Effects of Inertia II,” which is half droning hum, half menacing scrape – the midpoint between Experimental Audio Research and Tony Conrad, perhaps – is closer to the more familiar Growing sound of years to come, but not nearly as loud and not nearly as enveloping an aural experience. Look, all first-record “finding their feet” considerations aside, as every crumb-bum in the nerdiverse has observed at one time or another, the 7” just isn’t the best format for slow-building, patience-rewarding bands of this sort – full LP sides are where it’s at for such folks.