The Purling Hiss

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More About

• Mike Pollize
• Kurt Vile
• Guitar Hero
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Video Games

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Sorry, kids; there will probably never be a special Purling Hiss Guitar Hero edition. It isn't that the band—a solo project, essentially, from Birds of Maya member Mike Pollize—doesn't deserve that honor, but rather that the frenzied, thermite-trail leads and effects-pedal-fried, low-hanging feedback that Pollize wrests from his guitar would scramble the mental circuits of any able-bodied 15-year-old daring enough to attempt to emulate him. Track titles like "White Noise Machine" and "Gypsy" may dot the Purling Hiss repertoire, but albums like Public Service Announcement aren't wholly No Fun Fest, no-fi pop, or post-A Place To Bury Strangers fare. They often effectively do for blazing '70s butt-rock soloing what Lightning Bolt did for technically dazzling speed-metal interludes: force listeners to acknowledge that pyrotechnic showboating can be awesome when it's willing to explore self-indulgent extremes. Opening for the Soft Pack and Kurt Vile and the Violators. 18+.
Mon., Nov. 1, 8 p.m., 2010