Melt-Banana releasing new LP, 'fetch' (stream it)

by Doug Moore

Melt-Banana at Bowery Ballroom, 2009 (more by Lori Baily)

We mentioned about a month ago that the great Japanese noise/punk/grind act Melt-Banana will be touring North America during the second half of October and the first half of November. If you’re not acquainted with Melt-Banana’s music, you’ve got a good opportunity to make yourself familiar today: their eighth studio album, fetch, is streaming over at Spin. The album is pretty much more of the same for them, which is a) not at all a bad thing, and b) actually really impressive in a way, if you consider that they’ve kept up their absurdly high degree of energy for something like 21 years now. A friend of mine once compared the experience of listening to this band to eating a ton of sugar cereal and watching violent Saturday-morning cartoons until you get a headache. The comparison still resonates with me whenever I listen to them; they sound joyful, but their joy has a scary cheap-speed edge to it.

Melt-Banana’s tour will hit Saint Vitus on 11/1. Tickets are still on sale. You should really, really go see this band. I’m normally a stereotypically jaded stand-in-the-back-with-crossed-arms NYC audience member, but even for me, it’s basically impossible not to get down hard when these guys play. (They were also announced for Fun Fun Fun Fest, so make sure to catch them if you’re there.)

Don’t forget to check out the Spin stream of fetch, and check out the full run of dates (plus an older M-B favorite) below.