The fragrant, full-bodied first appearance of these youngsters. It boogies like D Boon and shreds like JFA. Hands down the most fun, engaging, and consistently hilarious outfit haunting Chicago basements this past year and a half. Our take: Not Normal digs into Chicago’s bowels and brings us yet another great, unique band. I can’t think of another scene that has nurtured such a diverse and ambitious group of bands over the past few years. Bless Not Normal for documenting so much of it. As for Deodorant, that they’ve laid these tracks to vinyl rather than Not Normal’s default cassette format signals they’ve put in a little more work here. The 12 tracks (well, 14 counting the intro and outro) chew up and spit out a huge range of punk styles, from Big Boys punk/funk, to Butthole Surfers-esque dirge, to Germs-esque nihilistic hardcore, to Dead Kennedys / Crucifucks-esque mockery. Stylistic uniformity has become less popular in the punk scene lately, but Deodorant push it further than most, seemingly determined never to repeat a move or an idea. And like a lot of the bands on Not Normal, they counter-balance their musical ambition with a rough, DIY production style that captures the anger, aggression, and alienation we all look for in punk music while still leaving room for moments of beauty to emerge. If you’re a fan of genre-benders like Warm Bodies or Brown Sugar, this will get you going, but anyone with a taste for left-of-center hardcore should give this a listen.
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