Hardcore Amore: Touche Amore, Not for Steady Hands

I tried to fix a Nintendo Wii this weekend: Tiny screws, meet my gorilla hands. I botched the operation and was left with a comatose patient and a fistful of extra parts. I blame Los Angeles band Touche Amore.

When doing intricate repair work, the last thing I should be listening to is hardcore punk that recalls pre-Fugazi D.C. band Rites of Spring: raw, ripping and ecstatic. It’s the kind of music that makes a primate’s paws twitch.

Touche Amore’s second album, “Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me,” (Deathwish Inc., June 7) features 13 songs, and only one track is longer than two minutes. Singer Jeremy Bolm’s lyrics choke on self-loathing, doubt and regret, and the passion of every spit word is matched by the raging-but-melodic guitars of Clayton Stevens and Nick Steinhardt, and the relentless drumming of Elliot Babin.

The band’s approach is over-the-top, but Touche Amore never lingers on anything long enough to exhaust the listener or his shaky mitts. I’m sorry, Super Mario.

» More music to wreck electronics by: Aphex Twin, “Come to Daddy,” 1997; Atari Teenage Riot, “Digital Hardcore,” 1997

 Touche Amore “Tilde” by deathwishinc

Touche Amore from KOFILMS on Vimeo.