Tv Freaks

Tv Freaks

Bad Luck Charms

Deranged

With a fistful of singles and two albums behind them, Hamilton, Ontario’s TV Freaks spew up a miasma of contradictions on their third LP. Angular yet liquid, chunky but with gravy and, like a sour grape, hard to keep down—it’s aptly titled Bad Luck Charms.  A trio of underground rock royalty brought the album to life, with production from Dallas Good (The Sadies, Elevator, Career Suicide, The Filthy Gaze of Europe), mixing from Don Pyle (Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, Crash Kills Five), and mastering from Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring). This is art made by near-descendants of early man and as intricate and nuanced as a Biblical fresco, painted with a boulder instead of a brush. Pummeling, primal rhythms battle with snaky guitars and static-shock bass as a man cries out and rips his own shirt off, with nothing more to offer but his own flesh. Is our luck about to turn?