Since their 2007 regrouping after several years’ hiatus, the formerly Milwaukeean industrial band Boy Dirt Car have been plenty prolific. But their latest seems special. Not only does it serve as a milestone of the currently Minneapolis-based act’s 40th anniversary, it sounds as if hope is peering into bandleader Darren Brown's nigh inexorable sonic portents of doom and decay.
Though what consist of lyrics on Boy Dirt Car's ten tracks amount to a few found vocals and the occasional enigmatic, stentorian pronouncement from Brown (including an acknowledgement of BDC's 1981 start date), the balance of sounds surrounding those few words wrestle with the prevailing aural darkness. Between the walls of rumbling, purposeful cacophony there are enough higher, brighter passages to signal what may be an adjustment of perspective. Maybe it's the satisfaction of being able to stick it out as a band for four decades being made audible in fits and starts. Perhaps it’s the need to breathe after confronting the recent tumult of the group’s Twin Cities environs on recent releases such as Solar Mountain.
Whatever the case, Boy Dirt Car marks a milestone and a grasp at uneasy equilibrium for an important exponent of noisy experimental music with Milwaukee roots.
Boy Dirt Car play a free show 10:15 p.m. Friday July 9 with Teenage Strangler (the band of current BDC drummer Dylan Ritchie) and local space rockers Vocokesh at Bremen Cafe (901 E. Clarke St,)
