Anything can be a hammer.
On the surface, it’s simply a factual statement. Any item, with the proper heft and applied with a suitable amount of force, can indeed be a hammer. Got a nail you want to nail down? Grab, I dunno, a sturdy shoe, or a nearby rock, and it’ll get the job done. Easy-peasy.
Anything Can Be a Hammer is also the name of the latest album from Brooklyn four-piece Bloodsports, and when paired with the band’s name, things could conceivably take a more sinister turn. Place the words “blood” and “hammer’ in each other’s vicinity and suddenly you’re thinking of some maniac going on the attack. Or maybe that’s just me – after all, I did watch The Slumber Party Massacre the other day, a film where a household tool is famously used as a weapon. But I digress. Back to the review.
Actually, the more that I think about it, the more apt my reference to an ’80s slasher flick seems when discussing Bloodsports’ set. Like a good horror film, the band can unsettle and entertain in equal measure. And their herky-jerky shifts between slowcore vibes and angular noise rock riffage (think Slint with a dash of Shudder to Think) paired with all-out bursts of screaming could certainly qualify as jump scares if you weren’t expecting them. Much like a hammer, Bloodsports can be quite forceful and effective when they need to be. And that includes the live show.
Touring alongside Kansas trio Flooding (who mine a similar sonic territory as their tourmates), Bloodsports put on a compelling performance. They may not be much for stage banter, but the music is more than capable of speaking for itself.
In a way the band’s sound reminded me of the kind of stuff that used to jolt me awake while listening to CBC Radio 2’s Brave New Waves back in the day. And if you don’t get my use of yet another reference to media from a bygone decade (congratulations, you’re young!), radio programs like Brave New Waves (or your chosen campus radio show of choice) were how we used to find out about cool, weird new music like this back in the day, before the almighty algorithm found everything for us. It was a simpler time. No less noisy, but perhaps a bit simpler.
