Dinner With Cannibals

Somewhere in the seedy underbelly of Denver's Five Points neighborhood, Dinner With Cannibals is crafting a cleverly addictive style. Soulful singer/guitarist James leads the group with a beer in one hand, and several of its brothers in his eyes. David generates lush textures by rapid switching from keys to winds to auxiliary guitar with the intensity of a politician viewing war through his binoculars. Super shy cutie pie Justin delivers sensuous bass lines that would knock cupid form the air. Percussionist Daniel contorts, flails, and produces a smattering of facial twitches while hammering out precise rhythms on the kit and all the little extras. Secondary vocalist/soundscaper Marc squats and leaps about like a velociraptor to help generate his guttural cries. The result is a hodgepodge of musical styles culminating into one homogeneous sound. Your Dinner with Cannibals is served. - Dean Wilson

Face it, in this expansive and promiscuous musical landscape, genres are basically obsolete. Old genres blend and new genres form and fade away in a matter of minutes (electroclash, anyone?) then rise from the dead the stalk the living again (garage rock revival/hip house). It’s to the point that only the most basic genres actually mean anything.

And then there is the new trend toward musical openness. How many times have you asked someone what they like and they reply “Everything”? And they actually mean it. There are actually people out there who are equally excited about finding a Tom Waits bootleg or the latest Kid Cudi mixtape.

Without the borders provided by genres, the music scene has opened up to a new and horrifying array of possibilities. Think about it. Everything is permitted. Faced with this new freedom, some bands will choose to bury themselves in the past, while others will do whatever their friends are doing, and still others will take this chance to give a grand cry of “Fuck it! We’ll do whatever we want.” It is safe to say that Denver’s own Dinner With Cannibals is taking the third option.

DWC’s myspace page lists the band’s genre as “Other.” And, after listening to the band’s debut EP, Sell Your Shame, there’s really not a better genre to describe them without getting into some serious musical hair splitting. You could call them something like progressive metallic popcore or something similarly obscure, but that still doesn’t do the band justice.

Listing the likes of Queen, Gnarls Barkley, Michael Jackson, System of a Down, Mindless Self Indulgence, and Faith No More as influences, the band definitely makes a statement. What's truly bizarre is that despite the obvious dissonance between the influences, DWC does sound like all those artists without sounding like a hell of a mess. Well, they do kind of sound like a hell of a mess but in a good, well constructed sort of way.

The opening track, “Eventually You’ll Blink,” boasts sporadic guitar bursts and a galloping baseline while vocalist James Campbell’s aggressive wailing and rapid fire delivery is as varied as anything by Mike Patton, Jimmy Urine, or Cee-Lo Green.

“Jealousy” alternates between a freaked out piano driven neon soul and a bursts of grungy, almost Mudhoney-esque guitar riffing.

“Just Leave Her Alone Guys” starts of sounding trippy and jazzy, with drums and keyboard before erupting into a barrage of what sounds like System of a Down on acid.

The closing track, “Saving The Day,” is the EP’s most pop friendly track. Mixing psychedelic synths with funky baselines, staccato guitar, even a saxophone, and what sounds like a xylophone, it may be the EP’s strongest offering.

The fact that the EP was recorded completely DIY in spare bedrooms and sleeping quarters only enhances the band’s achievement. If this is what they can do on their own, just imagine the possibilities if they had even a basic studio available.

It’s safe to say that Dinner With Cannibals is a band Denverites can be proud to call their own. Keep an eye on these fellas.
- UCD advocate Charles O Mera

Emerging from the rubble of experimental-rock terrorists Bangtel, Dinner With Cannibals pursues a similarly twisted musical vision. But with a name that alludes to Looney Tunes composer Raymond Scott, these Cannibals (due at the Larimer Lounge on Friday, May 8) also take a comically playful approach to their creative output while injecting heaps of melodramatic violence. Songs often start with a zany jazz passage before either weaving in or jumping headlong into death-metal/grindcore sections that are beaten about by eccentric changes in tempo and time signature. It would be tempting to chalk this up to a prog-rock and classical underpinning, but these guys go too far off the rails to fit that box very well. If Mr. Bungle had the snotty sneer of the Crucifucks, you might get something like this unholy, glorious mess of a band. - Westword News Paper Tom Murphy