THE ICARUS LINE

Slave Vows

theicarusline.com

From Raymond Chandler to the Gun Club and X, L.A. artists have long written love-hate letters to their gunky, glitzy, hellhole of a paradise. “The rats are collecting underneath our floor,” Joe Cardamone sings on “City Job,” one of eight thrillingly bleak, burnt-black rock ’n’ roll bruisers on Icarus Line’s sixth album. As always, the band plunders from the finest drone- and stoner-rock sources, most notably the Stooges’ freaky free-form classic Fun House, and on “No Money Music,” they update Suicide’s 1980 electro-punk gem “Fast Money Music.” On “Marathon Man,” Cardamone celebrates longevity that’s got nothing to do with jogging. Like rats, roaches and celebrity culture, he simply persists, and as he says, “I’m having fun!”