Utilitarian. That single word defines iron-throated frontman Scott Evans’ vision of Kowloon Walled City: no adornments, no studio trickery, no bullshit. The San Francisco four-piece — Evans on guitar/vox, drummer Jeff Fagundes, bassist Ian Miller, and guitarist Jason Pace — are like one giant rhythm section, pummeling listeners with drop-tuned impunity. For a year now, they’ve stirred up a sludge that owes as much to the Bay Area’s past as it does to AmRep’s glory days, garnering comparisons to The Melvins, Neurosis, and Unsane.
The band’s namesake was a neglected tenement in British Hong Kong. Unclaimed by both China and Britain, it blossomed into a squalid, labyrinthine enclave for gangsters, crooks, whores and junkies — a description not too far off the mark for portions of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, where the band rehearses and finds gritty inspiration. “Turk, Taylor, and Jones” re-imagines the neighborhood’s inhabitants as flesh-starved zombies, their teeth stained red as they claw for the next fix.
The band’s first EP, recorded in a single day by Evans in the band’s rehearsal space, comes out September 30 on Wordclock Records. Featuring “Turk, Taylor, and Jones” and four other songs, the Turk Street EP is available now on 10” red translucent vinyl, CD, and through iTunes and other internet retailers. Shortly afterward the band will begin work on a follow-up EP.
Reviews:
“They have sludge down to a science … Big, down-tuned distorted guitar riffs, with that cool feedback, great screamed sludge vocals, lots of bass, and heavy drumming. I like it…..”
Sludge Swamp, Oct 2008
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Kowloon Walled City is a truly remarkable band. You owe it to yourself to check them out. If you like the band please support them by purchasing their merchandise through this website.
Will give it a listen
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