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Please Baxter, Don't Hurt 'Em
Los Angeles, CA
www.Baxter-House.com
A lot of female-fronted punk or rock outfits rely too heavily on screaming or whining their way through an entire song about being screwed over by this guy or that. Not so with Baxter House's Please Baxter, Don't Hurt 'Em. Instead, Rachel Mintz gives you all the attitude you can handle while, at the same time, she's caressing your ear drums with a sweet melody. She'll fool you into thinking she's an angel and Satan herself all within the same number. Baxter House refuses to be put into a box with any one genre labeling, and instead breaks rules freely as they feel the desire, making Please Baxter, Don't Hurt 'Em a rather unique (and I'm rarely willing to use that term) compilation. Mintz almost deserves a spot in The Met for perhaps being the epitome of modern art, between her unconventional work and vinyl performance attire. Baxter House manages to avoid the expected in every way. No Food gives you a good range of what the band, and especially Rachel, can bring to the table, while you can listen to Mintz have an almost introspective conversation with herself in Dissociative Personality Disorder. When you throw in the rest of the EP, Fat Gross Cowboy, Black Skies, MKAO, and Gumdrop Heaven, what you get is an addictive assault on the senses. Imagine Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West all rolled into one, gathering you around in a circle for grown-up story time - that's Please Baxter, Don't Hurt 'Em. Just give in. You don't really have a choice.
- Jenn
Editor
editor@audioxposure.com
- Audioxposure.com
Baxter House should’ve subtitled this album “How to Create a Huge Splat on the Musical World”- because that’s exactly what they’ve accomplished with this 6-song, 12-minute EP. They establish their guitar/drums/vocals sound and they don’t back down off it. There aren’t any concessions, there aren’t any genre fusions- this is stripped down rock with a snotty punk attitude. If you like it, you’ll love it, and if you don’t, you’ll be confused.
It’s an extremely galvanizing record in the fact that there’s not a lot to respond to- there’s the female sung vocals, the female screamed vocals, the guitars that borrow from both the herky-jerky fervor of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the sludgy melodicism of an old school punk band, and extremely versatile drums that mutate to fit whatever the guitar is doing. If you’re put off by the girl screaming in “No Food”, then you’re put off- there’s not much other stuff going on that you can focus on.
That narrows our focus right at the songwriting- are these songs good or not? The answer is mostly yes. While the guitar sometimes gets a little bit bland (parts of “Black Skies”), songs like “MKAO” are just incredible on all cylinders. “MKAO” has verse that are very subdued (the drums even do some mellow rimshots), but the chorus just rips wide open, with the vocals and guitars and drums all going full tilt. They use some interesting rhythm patterns in the chorus of “MKAO”, as well as in “Dissociative Personality Disorder.”
They do a really good job of mixing it up, though- the intro to “Black Skies” is just drums and vocals, and “Black Skies” also includes a toy piano, in a cool touch. “Gumdrop Heaven” is only forty-five seconds long- but then again, it’s a Baxter House version of reggae. I think that gets props in itself.
So basically, this EP rocks. The songs are good, the instrumentation is unusual, and the sound is fresh enough to pass an USDA test. They’re not going to change the world, but they’ll certainly make a big splat when they’re dropped right in the middle of your day. You’ll remember Baxter House. Whether you enjoy that memory or not is up to you.
-Stephen Carradini
- Independentclauses.com
Artist: Baxter House
Title: Baxter House
Genre: Punk Rock
Format: CD
Ping-ponging back and forth between quiet and loud, Baxter House yields a sound that is nothing short of startling. Just when you think you're being serenaded by a lullaby, the volume is suddenly cranked up full blast, shrieking guitars take charge and the vocals wail in pain.
Powerful and explosive, Baxter House involves tracks like "Fat Gross Cowboy" and "Dissociative Personality Order" that keenly represent this Los Angeles trio's penchant for angst-riddled sentiments. Naked emotions, teeming with frustration and a determined will to make some serious racket are the stuff that causes Baxter House to tick. The grooves are punishing and the feel is raw and hairy. A hardcore punk rock philosophy is arguably at work here. Good for Baxter House for playing music for the sheer sake of playing music.
- Jump, Jive and Harmonize.
Baxter House EP on Tower Records dot com ALSO check out all our kick ass AWARDS on GARAGEBAND
www.garageband.com/artist/baxterhouse
For "MKAO":
Track of the Day on 14Apr2006 in Punk
#1 Best Female Vocals in Punk, all-time
#14 Most Original in Punk, all-time
Best Female Vocals overall, week of 10Apr2006
Best Female Vocals in Punk, week of 10Apr2006
Best Female Vocals in Punk, week of 17Apr2006
Best Female Vocals in Punk, week of 24Apr2006
Best Female Vocals in Punk, week of 8May2006
Best Female Vocals in Punk, week of 15May2006
Best Lyrics in Punk, week of 10Apr2006
Best Lyrics in Punk, week of 15May2006
Best Mood in Punk, week of 10Apr2006
Most Original overall, week of 10Apr2006
Most Original in Punk, week of 10Apr2006
- www.garageband.com
http://www.blender.com/video/872/BaxterHouseInterview.video?pn=1&vsid=7 - Blender.com
Baxter House’s playful album title is unindicative of the fury that the trio’s six tracks give off, as tracks like “Fat Gross Cowboy” contains enough anger to make Courtney Love blush. This female fronted band twist the punk rock ethic with toy piano interludes, infectious choruses like the one found on “Black Skies”, and Candyland-esque trippy ditties gone punk like “Gumdrop Heaven”. Sweet on one side and very bitter on the other, Baxter House’s stripped down angst and tongue in cheek abruptness smashingly radiate the perils of punk rock.
www.baxter-house.com
- Mike SOS
- Mike SOS multiple publications
Discography
2005 - "Please Baxter, Don't Hurt 'Em"
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Los Angeles, California birthed Baxter House in late 2005. The band embodies the fun and spunk of a Broadway act mixed with furious thrash. Three friends met while living in a house together on Baxter Street in Echo Park which erupted into flames during their residency. This nearly calamitous event sparked their child-like and incendiary logo. Their primary colored vinyl and furry uniforms encapsulate their irreverent attitude on stage, a paradoxical combination of a Sesame Street episode with an NC-17 rating.
"Please Baxter, Don't Hurt 'Em" - Baxter House's six song EP serves as a one act play, transporting the listener from an angels' choir to a mirrored fun house with detours into fiery perdition. "No Food" and "MKAO" set the standard of female punk assaults with Rachel Mintz shrieking like a possessed Linda Blair over Sky Minor and Malik Williams' drum and guitar speed blasts. "Dissociative Identity Disorder" alludes to Baxter House's more experimental side, eschewing classification while exhibiting bizarre pop innovation. "Fat Gross Cowboy" sounds like a dark punk rock version of a militant western rodeo. As if TINA TURNER met BAD BRAINS and seduced EXENE CERVENKA of X into a menage a trois, Baxter House's nuclear-powered art rock is a kick in the sack.
Baxter House shows from Miami to New York and back to Hollywood jolt listless crowds to attention as Rachel winds her way through the audience leaving spectators awe-struck. Baxter House's aftermath leaves little girls feeling liberated and boys worried a woman might have bigger testicles than they do. 2006 was a banner year for Baxter House with critical acclaim for the EP and live shows coming in by the dumptruck load and a featured video on the front page of Blender.com. By the dawn of 2007, "Please Baxter, Don't Hurt 'Em" had begun selling like hotcakes off Itunes and CDbaby, Rachel had appeared on the cover of two punk magazines and an alarming number of discharged mental inmates were swelling the ranks of the Baxter cult, eagerly anticipating the band's follow up album. From the streets of Echo Park to the playlists of the world, Baxter House has arrived.
***For much more content including videos, animations, lyrics and pictures please visit www.baxter-house.com***
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