WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 12:

On Down Below It’s Chaos, Kinski’s latest album for the Original Seattle Recording Company known as Sub Pop, the band travels back in time about twenty years. Moving further away from the signature Krautrock drone of their earlier records and into a more straight-ahead rock direction we used to call “alternative,” the Sonic Youth comparisons are hard to ignore. Although mostly instrumental, on songs like “Passwords and Alcohol” and “Dayroom at Narita Int’l (which I’m told is an airport in Japan)” Chris Martin’s sub-dude vocals wade through the murk to enlighten the listener to the band’s late-night drinking habits. The psych monster once again rears it’s ugly head on the standout final track “Silent Biker Type.” Modulation and dynamics abound as sound is plugged in and filtered through various stomp boxes and mind-erasing electrode fucktardery. Live, much like on record, Kinski invoke that ‘90s wall of fuzz made popular by groups such as Mogwai or Bardo Pond but a recent national tour opening for Tool things may have tightened things up. Let’s hope not, though, because the squeaks and squawks and bowel-loosening low end made famous in the Pacific Northwest might just be what the doctor ordered. (JM)

WITH DEAD PONIES AND UNNATURAL HELPERS AT THE ECHO, 1822 W. SUNSET BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8:30 PM / $8-$10 / 18+. WWW.ATTHEECHO.COM.