Motif Alternative Album Nominees

Sick Pills — Sickening

Earlier today I was blasting the new CD Sickening from the New Bedford-based band Sick Pills. With all that ground thumping new wave goodness pouring from my open window, my normally bucolic, suburban street was transformed into what the Bowery must have sounded like some 40 years ago when Television or Blondie were booked at CBGBs. Led by Chris Guaraldi (former of Blood Moons and Chris Evil & The Taints), these guys have used that late ’70s / early ’80s punk sound as merely the foundation for a vibrant, relevant and thoroughly modern sound. Standout examples include “Wormfood,” a classic middle finger to the religious establishment, inevitably proclaiming: “I don’t pray for what I want, or the loved ones that are gone….Because we all become wormfood in the end.”

DirtyDurdie — Group Therapy

Dirty Ice  and Durdie Furby, aka DirtyDurdie, bring a cohesive, masterfully mixed compilation to the table with their latest album release, Group Therapy. Their fourth project gives life to the duo’s laid-back style and no-shits-given attitude, self-described as, “controversial, conscience and comical.” They take this lyrical style into the “group therapy” theme of the album, bringing issues like Oxycodone addictions and evil yet addictive women to the table. What is most striking about the flow of the tracks is that it keeps a strong cohesion while presenting an array of stylized beats, undoubtedly a result of working with nine different producers in their 16 tracks. They do this through a thematic use of classic and oriental instrumentals paired with vocal samples reminiscent of Gang Starr, MF Doom, Dr. Octagon and Wu-Tang Clan. Halfway through, the album mellows out with an easy-riding beat,  in “Running,” and picks back up with “Han Jamboree,” skillfully looping a cut time flute riff under the beat. They again alter the pace a few tracks later with “Zero Gravity,” easing into a ¾ waltz-style time signature.