Every so often you come upon a band that when you hear them it feels like you've had a void in your head waiting for that music to come along and fill it.Void, meet Gravy Train!!!!
They're like a napalm enema for pretentious boring indie music. Sorry for the graphic image but I'm afraid in this case it is absolutely necessary.
Some of their songs are shockingly filthy, but the sort of filthy shock that zaps the listener to attention. Some songs are plain silly. All are fun. And underneath many is a subtle emotional core, as in "Burger Baby" in which lead singer Chunx, in a deceptively humourous manner, reveals struggles with weight gain and food addiction, or in "Jody" where the devilishly handsome Hunx talks about a new love in his life. Gravy Train!!!! is for those of us who feel most indie music that is trying to be intelligent and emotionally compelling is actually tediously beating its listeners over the head with the artlessly overt whining of spoiled kids. In GT the spoiledness is acknowledged and garishly satirized. The personas of the band, particularly of Hunx and Chunx, are so aggressive in their flamboyance it becomes genuinely poignant. That perhaps is the real art of a band that never comes off as artistic but which is so smooth in its creativity you don't notice it. Possibly the best comparison is the Beastie Boys on Licenced To Ill, but GT is its own thing.
Hunx has apparently branched off in another act called Hunx and his Punx with a similar sound and similarly deceptively simple, clever lyrics. I enjoy the twist ending of this song. I can safely say this is my favourite gay romance video, though under normal circumstances I don't need to see a guy wearing sexy tights. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I just happen to enjoy our possibly arbitrary but nevertheless fun culturally assigned costumes. But I'll let Hunx off the hook because he's awesome, I dig the rest of his clothes and I love the amazing CGI animals at the beginning. My kind of effects!
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