Panthers' career has been a case of two steps forward, one step back. The Brooklyn proto-punk band began their public life with Are You Down??, an album of polemical art-skronk so joyless, so overcooked, and so hell-bent on fingerbanging the boneheaded revolutionary specter of MC5 that it was essentially unlistenable. The album was plastered with more bumper-sticker rhetoric than a Whole Foods employee's Volvo, and while it most of it rang hollow, the bit about Panthers wanting to destroy art seemed on the money. If it were the only album they'd ever released, a sort of musical slash-and-burn, you'd have to give them credit for walking the walk.
But it wasn't, and Panthers 2.0 retraced their steps through rock history to figure out exactly where they'd lost the plot on the debut. The result of these bug patches was an EP called Let's Get Serious, and, well, it did and it didn't-- Panthers got serious about monster riffs and coherent song structures, but toned down the overbearing gravity of the lyrics. They were still throwing stones, but it suited them better in this hard-charging rock powerhouse than their former art-damaged glasshouse.
Things Are Strange, like Let's Get Serious, found Panthers just as learned in the sweet science of riffology as in post-structuralism and Hegelian dialectics. Only problem was the trend toward tuneless, tensionless epics that reminded us in no uncertain terms that Panthers were a very serious band. Two steps forward, one step back. If Panthers stay together until 2050 or so, they might wind up becoming the greatest band in the world.
But this is 2007, and Panthers are still improving by gradual degrees. On their latest LP, they've made another vital step toward shedding their excesses-- quite literally. Where Things are Strange lost steam whenever it meandered away from its blistering grooves, The Trick sticks to the beaten path: Panthers saddle up bucking bronco riffs and ride the hell out of them for a minute or three, no detours. It's a rock qua rock record, with all the circular reasoning that entails: It rocks because it rocks; rocking is worth doing because rocking rocks; ad infinitum.
And like anything with a value defined mostly by tautology, it has the potential to seem tedious, even vacuous, to any but the truest believers. For all the raw power of The Trick's riffs and the better-than-usual efficacy of Jayson Green's slightly aloof sneer, it's a slow starter. "Goblin City" promises excitement as its fuzz-bomb chords crash in over stony snares, but for an ostensive rave-up, it's a little too lean; a sizzling fuse that never quite explodes. "Listen to Me", with its cock-out guitar cascades and strangulated chorus, would be more sympathetic if Big Business wasn't doing the same thing, but with a sense of humor. The title track simply plods.
But about halfway through the album, a shift occurs-- Panthers abandon moody micro-epics and really start to cook. "Long Time Coming" sizzles; overdriven surf-guitar peals bend into a syncopated stomp with the muscle-bound percussion. "Panther Moderns" actually establishes some drama with its hazy distortion overture, drama that comes to fruition in the snarled guitar lead that leaps out with Green's confident vocal turn. And "Uncertainly" burns down and rebuilds thrillingly for two intense, time-lapsed minutes. Hopefully, on their next effort, Panthers will focus in tighter on the searing energy that they wear better than heavy atmosphere. If the current trend continues, they'll will, but they'll also do something else to undercut it. Guys, do not add that keytar!
