SATURDAY SONG TO GET STONED [AND SMELL THE FUTURE] TO: TRANS AM — “CARBOFORCE”

Once upon a time, I couldn’t get enough of this Thrill Jockey band’s futuristic rock sound — from their stellar early albums to a couple very interesting collaborations with The Fucking Champs to tours with MetalSucks faves The Bronx and muthafuckin TOOL, Trans Am most definitely used to be the shit.

Alas, those daze are long gone(instein); compared to the band’s excellent, unique, and continually reinventive first six releases (an impressive and prolific run for anyone), the next Trans Am album, Liberation, felt rather lukewarm and stilted — the underlying focus of said record is a political attack on our nation’s dumbest
prezzaschmuck to date, a choice which noticeably detracted from TA’s ever-evolving musically creative voice.

The band released another full-length entitled Sex Change in 2007, which was somewhat of a return to form, but clearly the heyday of this exciting robotic-rock unit has passed.

Sniffles.

TRANS AM — “Carboforce”, from Surrender to the Night (1997)
-KW