Woorms Premiere “Amputation Station” Video; Tour Starts This Week
This Thursday, Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based noisemakers Woorms launch an East Coast/Midwest tour supporting their 2022 album, Fatalismo, but even as they go they’re moving forward from there too. If you’re sensitive to flashing lights, the idea of self-mutilation as sexual kink, or aural pummel, you might consider hanging back on this one, but for everyone else — therapy? — the 5:43 “Amputation Station” video should sit nicely. Making his first appearance in the trio is Miguel Rincon, and for those who encountered Fatalismo last year or who will find themselves standing in front of the stage on the band’s current tour, his presence would seem to make a marked difference in the group.
The narrative around the single is one of aural expansion. Drummer Aaron M. Polk and guitarist/vocalist Joey Carbo, and the aforementioned newbie low-ender Rincon, bring atmosphere into the song in a way that Fatalismo moved away from after 2019’s Slake (review here) was loaded with samples and whatnot. A keyboard part running alongside the central riff in the new song makes the last record seem so comparatively raw. Where even “And Heck Followed With Him” preferred to flesh out with feedback around its almost Melvins-y riffing and Carbo‘s guttural bellows, or the subsequent “Lunge Meat” held its noise till the end, “Amputation Station” builds off “Dead Dead Men”
Both of those, by the way, are well intact on “Amputation Station,” but with more layering, that current of keys comes through as methodical and a more essential piece of what gives the song its eerie vibe. It’s not a crazy shift in sound, but it does distinguish the track from the previous LP, and would seem to hint at the direction in which they’re moving, but of course what the hell do I ever know about any of it. Recorded by Carbo, “Amputation Station” is every-level-weird, a little off-putting in its subject matter, and visually abrasive. All of this is on purpose. Woorms are a band who offer their crunching, meat-toned aggression as a challenge to themselves and their audience alike. If you end up at a gig, I hope it’s a blast.
Carbo digs (carves?) into his fascination with the idea of amputation fetishization — I’m sure there’s a word for it, but I’m not going to look it up — in the PR wire info that follows the video, and sure enough, the video follows here. If you’re up for it on whatever level you want to read that as meaning, please enjoy:
Woorms, “Amputation Station” video premiere
“Amputation Station” is the newest video and single from Baton Rouge/New Orleans, Louisiana-based noise rock trio WOORMS. The standalone track drops as the band gets in the van to assault the Eastern half of the US on tour this week.
WOORMS’ material surges with dirge, grit, and groove, backed with bellowing amplification. Since their 2017 formation, the band has developed a diehard fanbase through three LPs, an array of singles, demos, and EPs, splits with A Hanging, Radiant Knife, and The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, released through the likes of Sludgelord Records, Forbidden Place Records, and their own Hospital Records. Most recently, the band’s third LP, Fatalismo, was recorded with Steve Austin from Today Is The Day and released on Austin’s SuperNova Records last Summer.
After the release of Fatalismo, guitarist/vocalist Joey Carbo and drummer Aaron M. Polk welcomed new bassist Miguel Rincon, and the trio immediately began creating new music, expanding the band’s sound with new stylistic experimentation. “Amputation Station,” the first new song from the revamped lineup, was recorded by Carbo at his own The Hospital studio in Baton Rouge, and now sees release through a video, filmed and edited by Istanbul-based director Ensar Oytun Morgul.
Carbo delves into the new song and video, “I have intended to write about self-surgery for maybe twenty years now. Back then I had read some accounts of people successfully removing glands in marathon self-surgery sessions, lying on plastic sheeting on a motel room floor. They would become obsessed with the removal of a certain organ; a pathology would develop there. I do a lot of research for songs and to find samples that no one will have heard before. These research sessions are not always the best part of my job, to put it nicely, but research for this song was fucking hardcore.
“I learned that there are a few subtypes within this community. So, let me be very clear on this video. The acts we portray mimic those of individuals who, for sexual and/or aesthetic purposes, willingly remove their own body parts. We absolutely don’t judge any of this behavior. We say go for it; safety first, and let God be your gardener… we don’t give a fuck. But what we are not making light of (or even portraying here) is the fetishization of those who have lost limbs in accidents, etc. Again, all good with us when consent is established. I say that because one thing I learned is that when someone suffers an amputation one of the first things doctors will prepare them for is the fact that they will be approached by or receive the attentions of certain people who will be attracted to the amputation itself, so they can decide how they will deal with that and consider how that might make them feel.
“We had no desire to tackle that nuanced subject. But two guys willing to take their own limbs off so they can enjoy some good old’ fashioned stump fucking? Well, that’s fair game. The extreme certainly interests me as much as anyone else. I am intrigued by those who would go so far as to self-mutilate, become a serial killer, or join a religion.”
WOORMS sets out across the Eastern US on tour this week. With sixteen shows confirmed, the band will play cities in Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, and Alabama between June 8th and 24th. See all confirmed dates below and watch for additional live updates and more to post over the months ahead.
WOORMS June 2023 Tour Dates:
6/08/2023 Marsh Room – Metairie, LA
6/09/2023 The Mix – San Antonio, TX
6/10/2023 The 13th Floor – Austin, TX
6/11/2023 3 Links – Dallas, TX
6/12/2023 Growlers – Memphis, TN
6/13/2023 Kiss Bar – Springfield, MO
6/14/2023 Minibar – Kansas City, MO
6/15/2023 Buzzbomb – Springfield, IL
6/16/2023 Cobra Lounge – Chicago, IL
6/17/2023 The Lager House – Detroit, MI
6/18/2023 Buzzbin – Akron, OH
6/20/2023 Southgate House – Newport, KY
6/21/2023 Cherry St Tavern – Chattanooga, TN
6/22/2023 Starbar – Atlanta, GA
6/23/2023 Alabama Music Box – Mobile, AL
6/24/2023 Fractal Brewing – Huntsville, AL
WOORMS is:
Joey Carbo – guitar/vocals/keys/samples/etc.
Aaron M. Polk – drums
Miguel Rincon – bass
[…] Strap in and endure the gnarly black comedy and groove of WOORMSâ?? â??Amputation Stationâ? video first at The Obelisk RIGHT HERE. […]
[…] the gnarly black comedy and groove of Woorms’ »Amputation Station« video first at The Obelisk RIGHT HERE. Find »Amputation Station« at Bandcamp HERE. Also stream »Fatalismo« everywhere including […]