Black Horse

While this Brooklyn band's name may tempt you to instantly forget them in the sea of bands with "Black" or "Horse" in their name, Black Horse's music should not be overlooked. When I first heard this dynamically distorted duo, I thought their music sounded something like a cross between Hot Snakes and Perry Farrell (mostly, that's just on their song "Changrila," though). Then I thought that there's no way this band can only be comprised of two people. Yet, it is.

Singer/guitarist April Goettle and guitarist A.P. Shroder rock explosive punk that just sounds big. Sure, they get some help filling out this sound from a demented drum machine, but these two know how to create something denser than the sum of their parts. They've been compared to Steve Albini's big three bands; Shellac, Big Black and Rapeman. And I definitely hear that. There's a raw edge to these songs that scratch and grate and claw their way to the surface. Black Horse make music that's mucky and dirty and good.

- Oh My Rockness

February 12, 2008
Exclusive! Download the Brooklyn-based genre-mashing duo's tune "Shake, Shake, Shake" off their forthcoming LP, The Black Arts of Black Horse.


Black Horse

Marrying musical genres is a longstanding trick of the trade, and logical formula from which much of today's most interesting and listenable product was born. But with "Shake, Shake, Shake," the lead tune from Black Horse's debut, The Black Arts of Black Horse (self-released April 8), bridging the gaps has never been more refined, as the duo mix the minutiae of different yet closely related rock niches into one. Trudging out with a heavy riff and mechanical drumming reminiscent of Marilyn Manson's late '90s work, "Shake, Shake, Shake" soon settles into an industrial-esque dirge with intonations of wall-o-fuzz art-metal. But as the tune pushes on, and co-vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist April Goettle's vocals come to the forefront, the tune's garage rock qualities hold their ground; her lyrics and vocals paired with co-vocalist, guitarist, and programmer AP Schroder's flat screech, blend with the decidedly heavy instrumentation to deliver an untapped form of barroom sass.

"I'm the kind of girl that likes to shake, shake, shake," Goettle belts over a sludgy mix of distant riffs, drum machines, and layered white noise. Chiefly a fuzzed over three chord rouser, "Shake, Shake, Shake," despite its musical simplicity, arrives with an acute sense of urgency; maybe after years in various bands, Goettle and Schroder's Black Horse has shaken up just the right formula. - WILLIAM GOODMAN

Black Horse's dual-guitar rock recalls the Kills on a professional hit, with drum-machine clips as ammo. April Goettle and her partner A.P. Schroder don't just pervert the blues on their six-track demo recording but meld the kind of tense, lo-fi pigfuck that Steve Albini loses himself in analog tape trying to re-create. (KS)
- Kate Silver

Double-guitar coeds Black Horse and their trusty drum machine provide the sleazy, grind-heavy soundtrack for riding out the sloppy tail end of a weekend-long bender in the dark and sticky corner of a seedy, highway-side strip joint. Singer-guitarist April Goettle lures you in with her seductive junkie whine, then her partner-in-crime, AP Schroder, sneaks up behind you, hits you over the head with a hellish blast of distortion and rifles through your pockets. Read more at www.blackhorserock.com.

9 p.m. Sunday at the Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk St., San Francisco. Tickets are $7. Call (415) 923-0923 or visit www.hemlocktavern.com.

- Bill Picture

Black Horse, Supernaughty
(Comet) You remember, back in the day, when badass music didn't necessarily mean diddling, ridiculous shit like DragonForce and Rhapsody of Fire? Black Horse have that kind of 1990s pre–power metal dirty-rock vibe. Their songs have choruses of "fuck yeah!" built into them, and it's shouted with the energy of someone who really believes in the power of a good cathartic "fuck yeah!" Black Horse's guitar riffs are crunchy, postglam blues-fed headbanging monsters, but this is no retro act: The interplay between April Goettle and AP Schroder's lead vocals, combined with the drum machine that makes up the third corner of the trio, makes the band feel like a sort of rock-and-roll Le Tigre: part irony, part sincerity, all motherfucking hook. PAUL CONSTANT

- Paul Constant

YOUNG WIDOWS + THE AUSTERITY PROGRAM + TOMBS + BLACK HORSE
"A night of indie-friendly metal and metal-friendly indie.... leaner/poppier drum machine band Black Horse let the Rolands and the hooks do the talking..." - Village Voice

wednesday9
BLACK HORSE Yesterday this Brooklyn duo (vocals, guitars, drum machine) released their full-length debut, The Black Arts of Black Horse, and goddamn if my advance copy hasn’t been rocking me for weeks already. I’m almost embarrassed to be so affected by an album this predictable and obvious—its no-frills garage stomp reminds me of a half-restored 70s muscle car done up in flat gray primer. But the burly riffing and wicked boy-girl vocals (which run the gamut from affectless serial-killer muttering to a sort of Lydia Lunch yowl) hit a real sweet spot—the same one massaged by Live Skull records from the late 80s, Joan Jett concert bootlegs, and humble, sludgy metal bands that would never dream of trying to improve on Black Sabbath. Rule 22, the Gornys, and Genius School open. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $7. —Monica Kendrick

- Chicago Reader

Black Horse is the duo of vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist April Goettle and vocalist, guitarist, and programmer A.P. Schroder, both longtime indie rockers with an aggravated edge and a dark world view that explodes into thick, noisy slabs of feedback drenched sludge. Their twin guitar attack is both extreme and tuneful, a sinister blend of industrial grind, distorted metal, arty post-punk clatter, and garage band simplicity. Using drum machines, keyboard loops, and twin electric guitars turned up to 12, they paint grim portraits of urban life full of booze, sleaze, and sorrow, full of dive bars, abandoned cars, lost weekends and desolate garbage strewn alleyways.
Goettle was born in Deerlodge, Montana and is a Gemini. Her parents were rodeo hands so she grew up on the road listening to country music on the car radio. In school she loved Dolly Parton, Cindy Lauper and Prince. She started playing guitar, but never made the leap to being in bands until she left home and moved to Seattle. She played in a couple of all-girl punk bands, Slink and the Apocalypsticks, finally deciding to start her own group. An ad in the local indie newspaper led her to A. P. Schroder who turned out to be the guitar player of her dreams. Schroder was born on July 18, 1975, somewhere on the great Northern Plains. He made his way to Seattle and joined The Building Press, a power trio that played songs marked by meandering arrangements, open ended improvisations, and odd melodic structures in styles ranging from rock to free jazz. The Building Press was alternately known as both brilliant and messy and unfocused, the musical equivalent of a nervous breakdown.
He stayed with the band until they went on extended hiatus, contributing to two LPs ­ The Amplitude of Frequencies Over Time and Young Money ­ two EPs and various tracks on compilations. He joined Goettle in a more traditionally formatted rock band, but the other players were always on the road with other outfits. In 2004 after a frustrating year, they bought a drum machine, rewrote their songs for two guitars and moved to New York.
They use vintage late Œ80s drum machines, one of which is customized with an exposed circuit board so Schroder can bend the circuits manually to create various unnatural sounds, to generate the rhythms. In some cases they use two drum machines layered on top of each other and run through a series of filters to blast the beats out in real time. With their distorted guitar attack and Goettle's dark keyboard textures, they create an unholy din.
Their impressive debut, The Black Arts of Black Horse, is out on their own label, and they're indie all the way, producing the album, managing themselves, booking their own tours and doing their own publicity. Both work full time when they're not on the road. - J. Poet

Brooklyn’s Black Horse is a new, ear-blowing rock band led by a gorgeous brunette named April, whose vocals resemble a young Courtney Love. Their unusually slow, eerie tracks offer dramatic, heart stomping riffs from twin guitars that’ll intoxicate listeners more than too many Jack Daniels. Guitarists Goettle and Schroder's interplay create dark, suspenseful but unpolished atmospheres made of junkie groans and pained wails. “I’ve been doing bad things again, why won’t these voices leave me alone?” she questions along to a distorted, entrancing beat that is “Sunrise, Sunset” a far cry from Fiddler on the Roof. Black Horse’s album - like all the best ones - has to be taken in and absorbed to be fully appreciated and enjoyed. - Stephanie Nolasco

- Deli Magazine

Much of the advance press around Brooklyn-via-Seattle duo Black Horse found the band being positioned as dour doom-rock merchants who crib equally from the blackest of sources (Black Sabbath and Big Black, to be exact). While it’s true that singers/guitarists April Goettle and A.P. Schroder thrive at the intersection of abusive drum-machine programming and overdriven blues licks, the songs on The Black Arts Of Black Horse build a mood that’s anything but blackened. Like their nearest precedents—Royal Trux and Boss Hog (with some Jucifer thrown in for when things get especially heavy)—Black Horse never hide the hooks beneath their red-lined distortion pedals and dry, detached vocals. On the slack, swampy “Hey Sailor,” the drum machine grinds its gears as Goettle and Schroder stack riffs that are alternately AC/DC- and (no fooling) James Brown-inspired. Lyrically, the song is also among the album’s biggest bum-outs, with Goettle—alternately a dead ringer for PJ Harvey and Courtney Love—moaning through a lament on broken dreams and broken hearts. Despite the miserable vibes, Goettle’s melodies are infinitely hummable—while it may not be the sort of blackness doom-and-gloom purists expect, Black Horse’s ability to strike such a balance is quite the musical dark art. - AARON BURGESS - www.paperthinwalls.com