If “apocalyptic sasscore” was an accepted genre, Racebannon would be its poster children. The Indiana band’s Mike Mogis-recorded sophomore album (and Secretly Canadian debut) In the Grips of the Light includes a Captain Beefheart cover (“Electricity”) and it owes as much to that band’s psychedelic freakouts as it does to the Gravity Records/Three One G scene as it does to Sonic Youth and Swans. Sometimes it offers up sassy, flamboyant post-hardcore that rivals the Blood Brothers album that came out a month later (more on that in a sec), and other times it takes a noise-drenched acid trip into outer space. Vocalist Mike Anderson can sound as sarcastic as you’d want a sass band to sound, but he can also sound genuinely desperate, like the entire world is crashing in on him and this is his one last call to be saved.
