The Rubber Room column is a weekly look at recent and notable releases that don’t fall into the rubric of traditional reviews or reviewed material—namely 7”’s, 12”’s, 3” CDs, EPs, cassette-only, DVDs and MP3-only releases.

Devastation Duo
And the Demon Smiles
[Audiobot, 2005]

And the Demon Smiles is a live recording of Carlos Giffoni, No Fun Festival organizer and noise artist extraordinaire, and Chuck Bettis, sole member of Trance and the Arcade and Nautical Almanac/Yellow Swans collaborator. Sensing they both share a similar taste in destroying (and then pissing on) sound, the two formed a laptop duo in 2005. Considering their brutal track records, one would think And the Demon Smiles would be an exercise in horror, and that’s true, but only to a point.

The 18-minute track begins celestially—ringing loops and hopeful pulses—before degenerating into sick, tortured vocals and digital fuckery. After hearing lots of noise in recent days, I began to tire of shredded static and sinusoidal shrieks, but Devastation Duo deviates from the norm. Subtle gurgling clusters and dying-fire bass crackles enliven the usual antics. Bettis’ vocals deserve some acclaim too. Despite being buried and abused, Bettis brings unusual dexterity and nuance to genre not exactly known for divas. The twisted carnival-esque chimes, distorted animal squeals, and mangled alarms unleashed at the thirteen-minute mark separate Devastation Duo from the pack. Here one feels the thrill of improvisation and a dark jealousy at having missed the show. The track concludes with dying drones and sincere applause from the small, lucky audience.

And the Demon Smiles manages to do what most noise doesn’t: it horrifies without grating. It doesn’t rely on eardrum pain to convey emotional pain. As such, it’s a shockingly listenable eighteen minutes, well worth the effort to track down if copies are still available.
[Bryan Berge]

Headlights
The Enemies EP
[Polyvinyl, 2005]

The original release was available at shows and through Polyvinyl's mail order program late last year, but Headlights' debut EP, The Enemies, is now getting the official release treatment, and if more people get to hear this little disc, that's a good thing. They've heard their share of Galaxie 500, but this group's dream-pop is the kind you get when you sleep on sandpaper. Equally pretty and rough, the band's sound finds itself just a few seconds in. "Tokyo" opens with some noise, adds some lovely pedal steel between a fuzzy guitar, and gives us male/female harmony before a. Perfectly-too-long pause. Headlights make the kind of indie-pop you listened to before you decided to hate indie-pop.
[Justin Cober-Lake]

Vulgar Pigeons
Burning Episode 3" CD
[Deepsend, 2005]

I'll give Vulgar Pigeons credit for having the best artwork on a disc and package this year. The outer half of the CD looks like it's the same fire/orange leaf pattern as the rest of the album's packaging. Then you pick it up and—gasp!—it's clear, and that pattern is actually on the traycard. Seriously, I'm too enthralled by this design. But the music will snap you to attention. The disc contains seven new grindcore tracks that sound like their titles: "Violence Begets Violence," "Coffin Honeymoon," etc. Within the heavy grind and the screaming are occasional bursts of interesting music, like the hi-hat usage on "Violence," and some of the higher-pitched lead guitar work throughout. It's not an exceptional album, but genre fans should be satisfied.
[Justin Cober-Lake]