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LP
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MIE 026LP
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Gang Wizard celebrates its 19th year with its fifth proper full-length LP, Important Picnic, on MIE. Mike Landucci started the band in 1995 with his brother Tom, and Jacob Anderson (Spirit Duplicator, Yuma Nora) joined shortly after. Christopher Breedon started drumming for them in '98, and those three have formed the core of the band ever since. Dozens of notable musicians have come and gone, most importantly, Brian Miller (Foot Village) who gains a mastering credit on this album, and Rob Enbom (Hospitals, Eat Skull), who, with Landucci and Anderson, took the band on an unexpected detour into more degenerative psych-noise terrain (think Amon Düül II), and as far as a European tour in 2007. Based in downtown Long Beach now, Landucci and Breedon have brought on board the two eldest Landucci boys (Linus, 19; Noah, 16) and local jazz guru Rob Woodworth, in between annual trips to Portland to record with Anderson. Recordings with every combination of this haphazard group are reflected on Important Picnic. It's easy to forget that every song is completely improvised in one take; they take on a verse-chorus-bridge format frequently. It's like Evaporators with none of the humor or musicianship; Hijokaidan deciding to cover the Hollies. Hints of no wave, garage, and straight-up bullshit indie noise weave in and out of these songs like it was natural and meant to be -- wink, nod, gasp, sigh. Simple-mindedness is celebrated, embraced, declared a virtue, and Gang Wizard invites you in to revel in it. One of Gang Wizard's 2013 self-released lathe cuts had the distinction of being purchased by exactly two people: Thurston Moore and Henry Rollins. Will the rest of the world ever catch onto whatever it is those two hear in the adventurous ramblings of the Gang Wizard? Doubtful. But stroll past Gang Wizard's Long Beach garage and hear the little broken amps squeal away while a Landucci screams his lungs out with the utmost urgency about nothing in particular, and you'll realize they really don't care.
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