In the year of 2002, Bucket Full Of Teeth released three 7"s on Youth Attack! Records titled I, II and III. Each record was packed with an essay written by one of the three members: Brad, Matt and Will. It was an awesome idea, but also contrived in the sense that they planned to do something musically different, as described in the essays. The essays had a collective theme about how it's important to challenge punk rock and further the progression of sound. Admittedly, they succeeded with a mixture of grind, screamo, noise, ambience, and southern rock/metal that sounds like none other than Bucket Full Of Teeth.
Three years later, there are as just as many copycat punk bands, if not more. And three years later, Bucket Full Of Teeth has released a one sided 12" record on Level Plane titled IV. With IV, but this time there are no essays. Instead of convincing the listener through words, they argue their thesis with twelve tight songs. This is Bucket Full Of Teeth's final recording, and considering they've played six shows in three years, this will be your last chance to hear them. Just like the 7" collection, you can expect a wad of influences wound tightly around a request for musical change.
While other bands focus on being the techiest technical band or just making pure noise, Bucket Full Of Teeth falls somewhere in between. They are able to make a very large sound while still containing traces of listenable melodies, and confusing listeners. Having ex-members of Orchid helps considering they pretty much mastered this trait. If you listen to the intro of "Capital Distracts And Imprisons," you'll hear this noise. Within the first ten seconds of the song they seamlessly transition into a part lead by delay guitar effects and loud drums. The guitar reminds me of Mono if they did fifteen second songs. The next minute when played loud enough will surely make break rib cages with the loud sound and fun grooves before blast beats carve us into madness. The highlight of IV for me is the southern metal riffs that occasionally make cameos because they feel so out of place. The awkwardness of putting these riffs in "A Hopeful Sound" next to weird experimental noise sections is fucking awesome. Meanwhile, the vocals used for all of the different parts fit the setting. For instance, when the music is slow and heavier the vocals go lower.
Bucket Full Of Teeth keeps us hydrated with tracks "The Dream Continues," "The Path" and "Confessions" that serve as ambient segues reminscent of Tristeza. Their ability to juxtapose ambience and discordant melody, blast beats and screaming reiterates the theme of progression of punk music. Where bands such as Godspeed You Black Emperor and Mogwai are able to produce beautiful music while still containing a punk feeling, perhaps Bucket Full Of Teeth is making the same statement with these songs. Or the soft textures serve as an auditory highlight of the abrasive nature of the majority of songs.
As unilateral as the music is, the lyrics stay on course with the same figurative appeal. The lyrics in the 7"s seemed more straight forward ("If you're not stealing from your job you're a fucking idiot. Every hour on your payslip, every hour of your labor is something your employer stole from you. Your work is someone else's profit."). In IV's second song, "Capital Distracts and Imprisons," they sing, "Situations of power bring about their expected ends /as these everyday contracts weigh more than life /weigh more than what is written on a headstone tied to our feet/ the price is humility." Just like in the previous lyrics, it's clear they don't like capitalism, but in IV, they take a very different approach. Only six of the twelve songs have lyrics in them, each only a few lines. The overall message I got from them is to keep creating. The final song, "Let Us Resonate," is their goodbye. "This chorus will never sound again, buried in silence extinguished like memories once forgotten, now vanished all attempts affect dissonance." The lyrics are penned on the walls of the 12" casing, surrounded by a drawing in black and yellow. It's all very pretty. The record itself is half yellow and half transparent red, hella tubular.
What sucks the most about Bucket Full Of Teeth's IV is knowing that there won't be a V. If their original thesis still stands, that we should strive to create something different, they semi-succeeded. The only reason they didn't get an A+ is because essentially they created a collage of different sounds without every truly creating their own unique sound. In summary, IV serves as a very cohesive piece, consisting of twelve parts of beauty and harsh reality.
