The Four Louies

When Bill Orcutt isn’t mutilating the guitar into something primal and ecstatic and new, he indulges the side of his musical brain that is both encyclopedia and trickster. On paper The Four Louies is preposterous; sampling, looping, tweaking, and melting together Steve Reich’s Four Organs and The Kingsmen’s legendary protopunk “Louie Louie.” In execution it both satisfies the true head’s need for abrasive experimentation and the human body’s incessant need to find pattern and rhythm in everything. It’s also just a fucking blast to listen to: the drums and piano of “Louie Louie” pushed to their distorted limits, the in-tune-until-they-aren’t whine of Reich’s organs and the constant shaking of that mosquito-esque incessant maraca phasing in and out of sync. It adds up to glorious, ridiculous, joyful noise. Play as loud as possible.