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There's a fine line between stupid and clever, as Spinal Tap once quipped, and don't these Future of the Left guys just know it. The Welsh trio, with two members from the now-defunct (sniff) McLusky, stomp all over that line with the subversive glee of a not-so-ignorant ignoramus.
Their barbaric yawp is militaristic and blocky, a swarm of ragged larynxes and troglodytic rhythm making — I picture Devo after the Apocalypse, their taut, repeated motions made tauter by frequent "YEEAAAAAAH!" battle cries. Travels with Myself and Another doesn't quite live up to the band's first studio album, 2007's Curses, but it reaches the same boorishly absurd heights on the spastic "Drink Nike" and on "Stand by Your Manatee," a catchy freakout about the "shame" of using plastic silverware.
Perhaps Future of the Left are suggesting that punk's worth is nothing more than its noise, or that profane disobedience would be nothing without the status quo to provoke. Or that there's also a fine line between a revolution and a tantrum.
