This is possibly the strangest album I will ever review in my lifetime. Oakland, CA's I WILL KILL YOU FUCKER may not on the surface seem much more than a bunch of college kids goofing around in a studio, but delving deeper into this 7" EP is quite an engaging and rewarding experience. Best described as a half-comedy, half-musical high school science project gone horribly wrong, "Educated Guidance" throws the listener onto an unsettling ride through a mock radio broadcast - aptly titled IWKYFM - filled with musical snippets, skits, studio effects and all sorts of assorted weirdness. This is actually the second installment of IWKYFM: the first volume was released two years ago and is now out of print. A possible comparison and influence would be FRANK ZAPPA and the MOTHERS OF INVENTION… that is, if there were any classically-trained virtuosos present. IWKYF, on the other hand, is a far more modern, stripped down approach to the experimental comic rock ZAPPA made famous.

Musically, IWKYF play a combination of bellowing hippie-fried stoner punk with humorous attempts at operatic choir vocals, along with the occasional Casio-programmed hip-hop beat. The main focus, however, is the comedy skits. And while they may make listeners scratch their heads more often than laugh out loud, they do what they're supposed to do, which is to reduce the comfort level down to nil and force listeners to submit to their mercy. Now whether "Educated Guidance" is more about having fun or trying to make a strong artistic statement is hard to tell, but it hardly matters. More listens to this one uncover more and more layers for the listener to discover, so if what we're looking at is meant to be nothing more than a joke, it's still a well-conceived and delivered one. Plus the near-handmade packaging is a collector's wet dream. Hopefully we won't have to wait long for the next installment of IWKYFM because it sounds like this is just a small taste of the band's true capabilities.

- Cardona

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/iwillkillyoufcker

RELATED ITEMS: No related articles at this time.