Cleveland Taco Week returns on Monday, April 10th!

Parts & Labor

With Proletarian Art Threat and Self Destruct Button. Saturday, June 30, at the Beachland.

By Keith Gribbins on Wed, Jun 27, 2007 at 4:00 am

Parts & Labor racket jazz Knitting Factory

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Three noisemakers from Brooklyn have been busy breeding melodies and mayhem. They call themselves Parts & Labor, and their beastly offspring, sporting names like "Fractured Skies" and "Unexplosions," are best described as racket jazz, noise pop, and avant-rock. Walk into the band's latest zoo, 2007's Mapmaker, and watch these creatures molest indie pioneers Sonic Youth, electronic rogues Add N to (X), and fusion-master Miles.

At first listen, the album's 12 tracks are obnoxiously loud little bastards, but give a song like "New Crimes" a chance, and the discord will morph into harmony: Drum patterns emerge, guitars snap into shape, keyboards click, and dueling vocals synchronize. It's no coincidence that founding members Dan Friel and B.J. Warshaw met at the Knitting Factory, New York's legendary club for avant-garde jazz and experimental music.

Watch out for meat beater Christopher Weingarten. His furious percussion is as amazing as it is abrasive -- a blitzkrieg of drum 'n' bass akin to electronic dude Amon Tobin (except that Weingarten actually plays the skins).

All in all, Parts & Labor creates a King Kong of clamor onstage.