Slicing up a specific Anglophile history of rock music beginning around 1978 and ending around 1991 (launch of Gary Numan's career to the demise of Bitch Magnet's, for those keeping score), Sixto's debut album lands some warm intentions, slips up and confuses some stylistic points, and altogether carves its own niche in the under-appreciated realm of rock music's misunderstood, too smart and ornate for it's own good. Born from the ashes of like-minded literate rockers Dis- and introspective haircut-core band Seam, Sixto's songs work best when riding on outmoded technologies, rack effects, and chilly self-awareness. No jagged edges here; the end product of the album's best tracks (the first three) are cold as stainless steel, with lyrics both lamentful and admonishing, blesses with lost grace and chiseled countenance of forgotten 80's rock bands Nice Strong Arm and 86. Coming from a couple of guys who in their last rock band incarnation actually became Tubeway Army for a few shows, this isn't a surprise. What is (and where they lose me) is their insistence on taking their twin-guitar mechanics and applying them to the kind of rock music that Silkworm makes. Sixto's far less ragged and way too wound up to make that work, and near the disc's end, when they finally shit the collective bed of in an embarrassing display of butt-rockisms, they shake loose and head back to what they do better. If these guys can manage to stop seeing the bar for the band, much good can come from their formula on future releases.
"Sixto is the dark, no-wave-ish band led by former dis singer Chris Fuller, whose unmistakable and bizarre song titles ('You Live in a Place of Whores,' 'Your Nemesis Wears Sideburns') complements excelent, angular rock on it's self-titled debut."
Splendid E-Zine understands us and we thank them for this.
"(The Jackals, The Cocks) veers more towards the punk at the roots of goth, but retains its sense of shadow."
Lost at Sea review the new CD.
Comprised of members from Seam and Dis-, the four piece take a completely different road on this debut, venturing down into a poorly lit, sometimes sleazy, post-apocalyptic rock party filled to brim with the very finest in trend setting mullets and aerobic tube socks.
An Interview with Chris Fuller on the On Milwaukee.com website.
OMC: Do you dream about playing in front of 20,000 screaming people?
CF: 11,000 is about as high as I can go before shame overtakes me.
From the Choke Distribution update of 01/28
..features members of SEAM, and the late DIS this is a guitar band from
Chicago. 4 cute boys (well maybe three) and some
inventive songwriting give way to songs that feature guitars and more
guitars to make some fine rock music..
Titles like "When OZZY Was Subversive", "Your Nemesis Wears Sideburns" and
"Scandinavian Metal" don't do
justice to the lyrics within.
Sixto "s/t" [Star Star Records]
Sixto makes me laugh everytime I think upon their name. I'm going to assume they're named after former baseball player, Sixto Lescano (sp?), and yes that was his real name. Featuring ex-members of Seam, this nine song self-titled record is over thirty minutes of music. Sixto provides this sexy style of arena-rock meets post-punk, if you can figure that one out. Trust me, once you hear this, you'll understand. Chris Fuller handles the vocals and reminds me a little bit of the singer from Joy Division, with his emotionless utterances. However, combined with the music, it provides for a rather seductive sound that is very accessible. Having been familiar with Seam, yet never actually having heard them, I'm unsure of what comparisons to make to the former outfit, yet I think it's safe to say that Sixto does an excellent job of producing their own unique brand of music.
The Intelligentsia Are Up In Arms Over SIXTO
"...Joy Division scores a dirty movie."
-P. Babbit, Film Fetishist
"...sounds more like a mis-compiled K-Tel goth retrospective
than something I'd normally believe to actually exist."
-Jan Klinger, Kunst Nugget
"...lends new meaning to the term 'hair-cut'"
-Craig Stevens, Tonsorial Quarterly
"...an undaunted celebration of the tapered-leg pant
for a flared generation"
-Albert Foss, You Want It Weekly
"...vacuous, nimble, and closely shaven."
-Eamon Gacy, author of Let Me Out, the Money's Not an
Issue
"Sixto, a band named either for a baseball hero or
an angry robot. I don't know which."
-Rev. Walter P. Haskins, Interdenominational Hedonist
Journal
"...a flame from the ass of an all too quickly receeding
millenium."
-Bobbi Reginald, Intern Gazette
"...more eyebrows than a meeting of the Politburo."
-Stacy Vanderhausen, editor of Free Chicken
"Mercifully devoid of stocking caps..."
-Perkin Wonderbaum, author of Don't Look if it Feels
Good
"...too cautious to be anything more than suggestively
retro, too white to do anything else."
-Pamela Admonson, Voivod Fan Club Bi-Annual
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