Go ask Alice. Cooper.
Innovative Leisure, 2013
6.5/ 10.0
Oh, those kids these days. While it’s not necessarily a given, there is definitely a lot that can go wrong when young folks, like the teens in Feeding People go all out with ‘big rawk’ ideas. The results can often be mixed-ish. What’s interesting about the self-described “heavy psych” of Feeding People is that the band sound downright modest at times, even when lead singer, Jessie Jones belts it out in her banshee wail, marking some imaginary waypoint somewhere between Grace Slick and Exene Cervenka.
Which is not to say Feeding People’s Island Universe, lacks for ambition or energy, because the album frequently is top heavy with both. What is more surprising, and a welcome relief, is Feeding People’s ability to bounce quickly between ideas, never lingering too long on any one song or mood to cause a weary listener to lose patience. No track on Island Universe cracks the five minute mark, and the majority hover around three, a breath of fresh air in a genre that can frequently feel bloated, overextended, or worst of all, edging into jam band territory.
Once again, Jones and the rest of the crew ladle on the thick riffage con mucho gusto, heavy on the reverb, and proggy in a deft and often satisfying way. Likely album centerpiece, “Big Mother” is 90 seconds of acid-drenched alt-rock. It’s only bested in satanic panic by the early metal indebted “Insane”, which does a fabulous, appropriately spine shuddering job of answering the question of what Black Sabbath would have sounded like if Ozzie was a chick. From the album artwork, to Jones’ impressive pipes, to the thundering guitar here, Island Universe almost makes me want to think those goll-danged hippies may have been on to something. Almost.
Purchase: Feeding People – Island Universe
Brandon Ottoman
February 16, 2013
There is not a single teenager in Feeding People. The members who recorded/wrote all the songs on “Island Universe” and the first album “Peace, Victory and The Devil are in their twenties, including guitarist Filliger in his mid-late twenties!! I don’t know where this rumor started but it’s completely false. Also, you won’t hear of the real members who recorded and wrote all the songs for “Island Universe” as Jones and Filliger no longer play with any of them. Makes you wonder about other bands and if your really idolizing the people who wrote the music…