The Vulture Club — Live Young, Die Fast and Leave An Exquisite Corpse

Sometimes an album comes out of nowhere that blows you away, and for me The Vulture Club's Live Young, Die Fast and Leave an Exquisite Corpse is a prime example of such a sucker punch. I haven't been able to wrench myself away from this disc since I first spun it a couple of weeks ago.

The Vulture Club is Thomas Lee, of Lawrence, Kansas. This album, released on the fine Utech Records label, is a simple, visceral and nicely assembled series of seven recordings which are mostly drone based guitar recordings varying in length from two and a half to thirteen-plus minutes.

The fact that they are mostly drone based is not to say that there's no variety to this disc. Each track has its own stamp, as some offer guitar pluckings and feedback which spread out in tendrils, and others are more straight-lined. All seem to be sourced from super distorted guitar sustain and feedback, most likely manipulated somewhat via computer.

These recordings don't sound overly fussed with though; there's a natural, live sounding flow which gives them vitality. It's not an easy thing to make a highly listenable album out of super-distorto feedback guitar (many have tried), but Live Young, Die Fast... succeeds in spades. This CD is limited to 500 copies, and comes with some great muscle car photos on the sleeve. Also, check out the Vulture Club website here.