How do you describe a thing that is technically proficient and theoretically good…but kinda goes in one ear and out the other? I will try: VORTIS is from Chicago, and they sound like it (that’s a positive). Open garage chords and snotty midwest punk with an ear towards a distant past. It’s catchy and there are tons of hooks (check “Frog In The Pan” specifically, because that song jams). See? I did it.
Smart folks playing dumb music. This band actually sported not one but two college professors at one point in their twenty-year career. To quote their Wikipedia page: “The band was named after the Vorticist movement of the early 20th century, a group of artists and writers whose basic tenet was to ‘perpetuate violent structures of adolescent clarity’ throughout life.” Oh brother. Kill me. The songs are well-thought-out and played competently, but are none too exciting to these marginally educated ears. They’re from Chicago and you could kinda compare them to some of the ’90s bands of the area like PEGBOY, SHELLAC, or the DIDJITS, with a little more basic rock’n’roll thrown in. They might fit right in on a Touch and Go comp of that era, but being that I never cared much for those bands, I don’t much give a hoot about this. Oh, if only I’d stayed in school…ugh.
