Male Gaze

Male Gaze

Miss Taken

Castle Face

“Matt, Mark and Adam, aka Male Gaze, return quickly from the brainy roar of their previous album King Leer with their six heels hanging even further over the edge of the abyss. Good bands often pull punches but the great ones don’t and these charismatically scarred veterans of romance, gear singed from all too real firefights in the dark world of adulthood, lodge ten new slugs into your vest. Your life was spared but you’ll feel every second of the thirtyfive- plus minutes, grateful that all you got was a bruising. Imagine what it did to them! Have you ever flung yourself out there to such a degree that you risked total humiliation if it all went south, to where the next step would be self deportation to some distant island of annihilation in your mind? How did that work out for you? Don’t worry, Male Gaze knows and they wrote some songs about it. Look out your window, down at the glittering metropolis below and listen to this album.” —Henry Rollins

Male Gaze

King Leer

Castle Face

“Weirdo-punk supergroup Male Gaze is back with nine new chunks of octave-pedal abuse and sultry croons with King Leer, their first proper long-player. This time around, the trio of Matt Jones (ex-Blasted Canyons), Mark Kaiser (ex-Mayyors), and Adam Cimino (ex-The Mall) have added former Blasted Canyons and Tiaras member Adam Finken on second guitar and resident Castle Face engineer Chris Woodhouse behind the boards to ramp up the skuzz-pop of last year’s Gale Maze into brutal wall-of-sound territory. On King Leer, the boys toy with their poppier side, dosing the songs with syrupy melodies and some newfound heartfelt introspection, but they’re by no means going soft on us—these tracks, buried beneath mountains of fuzz and pounded out with Adderall-fueled fury, pack enough sonic punch to rattle your brain loose.” —Luca Cimarusti, Chicago Reader

Male Gaze

Gale Maze

Castle Face

Blow-out enthusiasts, make ready to scarf this down without chewing: “How many licks does it take to get to the spider egg in the center of this sugar bomb? “You got the jitters, and dude, there’s blood on your shirt. “I like gore with my goth.  “Hey, you got your pop sensibilities on my explosion!” Strong vocals à la Modern English, back-beat complete and foamy bass bleached onto half-inch tape specially for Castle Face. Seven headstrong tunes to clatter your phonograph needle. I’ve always loved Matt Jones’s (ex-Blasted Canyons) vocal stylings, rich with tenor muscle flexes. Over the top in its endeavors and reaching, always reaching. Primal gas-guzzler drumming, center speaker from Adam Cimino sets the ear up for a beating. And hell, it’s got the old (and I mean old) bass player, Mark Kaiser, from Mayyors; solid-state aggression at its mid-low, knuckle-dragging finest. A slap in the brain done up nicely here on wax. Enjoy. —John Dwyer