Bullets or Balloons - Lifestyle Toxins

Something comforting knowing that there's all kinds of killer music out tucked away in every corner of this round planet. You can even find it in Olympia, Washington, in the guise of Bullets or Balloons. Chris, the guitar player hit me up a little while back to give his thing a listen, I'm always game, and I couldn't have been more stoked about this jazz punk bit of goodness. Before I go any further, or you do, you can skip my psycho babble altogether and read a straight up professional, thorough and well written review over at Fringe Music (enlightening and inspiring to read from a fellow music lover who's got his shit together). So, Bullets or Balloons, gotta dig that name. Well my immediate, and then delayed response to Chris was, "Dude, you have quite the three piece going on, I'd match you up against some of the best of them any day, and you are one shredding guitar player, huge sound man. There's quite the variety in your compositions, you guys are all over the place, but I'd say it's all really rhythmic, like a complex garage strumming, and kind of has a jazzy feel with some of the sudden changes within the songs. Something most folks may not mention, but I really dig how you've got the lyrics included with the songs on the Bandcamp page. Not a lot of bands take the time to do that, but whoever writes your songs is a real wordsmith and I enjoyed following along with the songs... "ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country is doing to you." Right out of the gate, the music is gail force winds in your face and tight as you hope the nuts and bolts are on your automobile. From there, there is no predicting what kind of tempo or rhythm you're gong to get within each song and then from song to song. I called them "jazz punk" and that may not be fair, as labels and categories tend to limit. Jazzy punk is what call those Jesus Lizard kind of bands with an obvious snotty punk ancestry, but far from being sloppy like most of the first punk rockers were, this is highly evolved Phd in music kind of stuff. I think musicians probably can appreciate this differently than the average Joe (me), but nevertheless enjoyable across the board. I turned down a review the other day, because the music had absolutely no balls, no flavor, like a sandwich from the gas station and I didn't feel like bagging on a bunch of hardworking musicians that obvious felt good about their art, otherwise they wouldn't have released it. Bullets or Balloons have fucking balls! Listen to the noodling on this one... "What Circumcision"

[audio mp3="http://mustard-relics.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/10.Bullets-or-Balloons-What-Circumcision.mp3"][/audio] "their eyes keep looking out the backs of their heads/what once was their home is now from where they fled/run and hide can’t run and hide forever/live or die their futures who will decide"

These guys are like a cup of rich coffee with a couple of shots of espresso (my favorite drink btw), fricken wired man! Anyway, if I've peaked your interest go check out their Bandcamp, their Facebook, their label's Facebook or their Youtube. https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3381474201/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/

...a vid they released last year... [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_4j1q38e8I]

...and to show you these guys aren't just a studio oddity, live, they don't just stick the knife in ya, they give it a twist as well... [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjZCKx2EGTI]