Picture the most over-the-top clique of art connoisseurs conversing outside a cafe in Williamsburg, then imagine a soundtrack to said conversation. Congratulations, your brain's just imagineered Our Way Is Revenge, the debut from the Brooklyn-based hodgepodge Shock Cinema. Essentially the product of some intricate networking-- drummer Miyuki Furtado (Rogers Sisters) tours with Katrina Ford (Celebration), Ford recruits him a guitarist and singer, TV on the Radio's David Sitek takes them under his wing, etc.-- the group totes a copious catalog of influences (both musical and non-musical) into this pithy 28-minute EP.
Considering their eclectic shout-outs to David Lynch, Can, Ennio Morricone, and other high-minded luminaries, Shock Cinema's music fits snugly in the post-punk niche, the six tracks and two remixes providing few chances for anti-ingenue frontlady Destiny Montague to elude Karen O/Vanessa Hay/Siouxsie Sioux comparisons. The rest of the band follows suit, crafting tinny, echo-laden backing all within the confines of CBGB's safety restrictions, never blowing the roof off with any one riff or cymbal crash but adequately filling out the venue nonetheless.
In modest doses, the pretentiousness and mimicry doesn't mean squat. Opener "Breathe Again" coasts on an ultra-cool surf guitar riff lifted from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Fever to Tell, but as the track disintegrates into ruckus and Montague's imagery of bodily harm comes to the foreground, you can hear echoes of a twisted Kim Gordon-led Sonic Youth number rather than stockpiled post-punk tropes. The three-piece garage assault boils over on "Death in Texas", perhaps the track where the presence of Trail of Dead bassist Danny Wood is most apparent. Although most of Revenge beats the chromatic scales and loud-soft dynamics to death, "Texas" doesn't relegate its riffs to the status of glorified vamps, a lesson the stagnant "Aftr Hrs" and "Howling Door (Evasion)" should jot down.
The album's more sluggish tracks, along with the slapdash pro-am remixes, compromise the fireworks provided by Revenge's more volatile songs. I understand the band refusing to fall rank and file behind the YYYs or Be Your Own Pet, but slowing things down painfully exposes their art-rock pablum. Unlike the Long Blondes or Love Is All, bands with similar post-punk/new wave aims yet broader palettes, Shock Cinema lack both the biting wit and endearing tenderness to complement their cerebral, misanthropic post-punk trappings. "Art of Noir", sung entirely in French, registers as something mildly charming and/or sexy, but its repetitive, back-and-forth raga has been done better by more stripped-down acts like Spoon, and the souped-up Giovanni Marks remix finds the track even less engaging on the dancefloor.
Ironically, the lack of anything remotely shocking is Shock Cinema's Achilles heel. No one's getting points docked off the bat anymore for shameless soundalikes, but you still need to reflect your influences from a new, interesting angle. Considering how quickly this disparate group of musicians assembled, there's still loads of potential here waiting to be tapped, and Revenge comes packed with more than enough avenues for the band to journey down. Until then, though, this band's merely relaxing under the massive shade of their touchstones.
