So let's say you're lying on the floor with some of your friends. A couple of you are tripping, a couple are stoned and Swans are blasting on the speaker. Don't laugh; that was five years of college for me. But instead of crawling off to their respective holes, this groups of friends thinks to themselves, "This is great, but what if we made it just a little bit catchy?"

Luna Honey Bound (self-released)

Luna Honey takes all the sludgy dissonance and most of the power of Swans and channels it into semi-reconstructed songs. That is, there is the occasional hook and even a chorus now and then. I'm trying to think who might have released this back in the day. As Luna Honey hails from Philly, prolly not Touch and Go (though sonically it kinda fits). Way more heavy and coherent than Pussy Galore or Royal Trux (I count those as pretty much the same band, even though Jon Spencer was definitely the force behind PG), but perhaps the Caroline of old might have been interested. Or maybe Sonic Youth might have found them some space somewhere.

Who knows? The point of all of this (I guess) is that Luna Honey is just as bereft of a solid home today as it would have been in the days when its music might have found a larger audience. I have two sons in college, and they stare at me in disbelief when I describe my college days. Kids are too fucking serious these days (I also think they're doing more drugs and having less sex, which is totally wrong). And they simply won't set aside the time it takes to fully take in something as brutal and beautiful as Luna Honey.

Earlier this year, I reviewed the latest from the Children (which includes survivors of Swans and Copshootcop). Luna Honey is more experimental in its instrumentation and less experimental in its song construction. It is less minimalist and more wide-ranging in its influences than Swans. Every once in a while, there's a catchy yelp. If any of this makes any sense to you, then dive in. The rest of you can gaze in horror.

Jon Worley