Millions

Seventh Ruler Scott Flaster is programmed for total destruction

Wanna gauge the degree of discontent and detachment that the computer age has wrought on humanity? Look no further than the four dudes in Chicago-based Millions—guitarist/vocalists Scott Flaster and Corey Lyons, bassist/vocalist Mark Konwinski and drummer Pat O’Shea—all of whom work in the IT industry and have no doubt spent more than their fair share of time staring into the digital abyss. Their debut album, Gather Scatter (a computer geek-ese reference too complicated for numbnuts like us to comprende), comes across like a desperate howl from someone on the verge of insanity, grasping for something reality-based and solid. Yeah, buddy, computers may bring you an endless supply of free porn, but they’re not so good at listening to your problems, or helping you determine which voices in your head you should listen to and which ones are less reliable.

So, Millions aren’t going to sort all that confusion out for you, but consider them sympathetic. Or at least their music is. Gather Scatter harks back to the ugliness of late ’80s/early ’90s AmRep and Touch & Go noise, a nasty, twisted and angular sound that Flaster figures originally arose from a political situation similar to the one we’re in right now. “The Bush family has always created some amazing bands,” he positis, noting that George Sr. was prez during the noise/grunge heyday. “When Clinton was around, that’s when things got a little soft. [Millions] definitely got started out of that bleak [George W.] era, and I think things are still bleak.”

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