The Institute for Navigating the Universal Self may sound more than a little hippy-dippy and academic than the blood, fire, death and swords and tequila we customarily introduce you to via our website, but know that the San Diego trio prefer to use the acronym INUS and that their sound and presentation is anything but customary. Featuring Locust guitarist/vocalist Bobby Bray, Sleeping People’s Brandon Relf on drums and Phantom Twins bassist Chad Deal, INUS is set to release their debut album, Western Spaghettification next week and we’re here this week to introduce the craziness. Put it this way: if Bray is saying that the songs on Western Spaghettification are the craziest compositions he’s ever had a hand in….well, we’re at a loss for words because Bray’s hands are already all over the delirium of Locust faves like “Priest with the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Get Out of My Bed” and “Skin Graft at Seventy Miles per Hour.”
Today, we present a stream of INUS’ recorded lunacy for you to experience. The band’s label, Three One G., is pimping the program as “a pre-postapocalyptic, post-honky-tonk-prog-skronk, space Tropicalia, math-lounge powersilence trio.” And when asked to clear up the squiggly sonic line as best as possible, here’s what the creators had to say about their creation:
“These are probably the craziest songs I’ve ever been a part of — I don’t think I could get away with falsetto like that in The Locust [laughs]. Early albums by the weirdo band, Renaldo and the Loaf definitely influenced some of the vocals. Half of the songs on Western Spaghettification incorporate a Yamaha Disklavier, which is a modern-day player piano and is fantastic to use because it can take super-fast rhythm guitar finger tapping parts sent via MIDI and reproduce them on a real piano. The Institute for Navigating the Universal Self (INUS) is a vehicle for an unimpeded exploration of the inner dialog between our post-dimensional Zandarian friends and the collective communities of microbiome in our gut-brains that cause humans to do strange things, such as organize ridiculous sounds.”
– Bobby Bray
“Western Spaghettification is a high-noon, sci-fi saga that invites us all to relax our symbols, unwind a bit, and cheers to the unknown. Perfect for your next corporate cotillion or atemporal tap class! Join a free seminar today and graduate from yourself instantly. Inquire within for details.”
– Chad Deal
“If all we do is die for a living then why not kill ourselves in the name of art?”
– Brandon Relf
Additionally, if you ever get a chance to check INUS out live, we’d highly suggest doing so as Three One G has gone on record to describe the INUS in-person spectacle as such:
“Poking fun at the failed for-profit universities of yesteryear, the band’s live performance interweaves blistering, calculated bursts of noise with educational slideshows that riff on subversive political commentary, dada-surrealist sci-fi, scathing social critique, fake news, space cults, infomercials, spoofs on the Department of Defense, and shout-outs to corporate sponsors. The result is an unapologetically bold, utterly ridiculous, and serious-as-all-hell multimedia showcase of sophisticated polyrhythms and hog-wild-future-amusement-park timbres with vocals ranging from ring-modded falsetto to rumbling Tuvan throat skronking.”
We’re also ridiculously and wholly proud to present the band’s video for lead-off single “Time is a Person,” which was edited by Bray himself, who went on to say the following about the sounds and visuals:
“The title of the album itself is a play on words referring to the movie genre spaghetti western, which were westerns filmed in Italy, and the actual physics term “spaghettification,” which is what happens if you cross the event horizon of a black hole. The video for INUS’ song ‘Time is a Person’ is comprised of a sampling of competitors’ commercials; the satirical and transformative video collage highlights archetypal images and tactics: panning to students hovering over a laptop; outdated technology; and juicy, comfy chairs just waiting for you to take out a huge loan and enroll. The song itself it a post-honky-tonk-prog-skronk opus with horse gallops synchronized to quick 32nd note finger tapping on electric guitar sent to a Yamaha Disklavier with brilliant math-rock percussion, undulating bass, and falsetto yelps: the soundtrack to the insane timeline we are on.”
*photos by Becky DiGiglio
