Cherubs

Sharing stylistic parallels with peers including the Jesus Lizard, Steel Pole Bath Tub, and the Melvins, Austin’s abrasive Cherubs maintained only a short presence inside the early-’90s noise rock underground. Their grinding, rhythm-driven material reached peak intensity on the fuzzy 1994 follow-up Heroin Man, just as the group fell apart. Two decades afterward, a reunited Cherubs resurfaced with little fanfare and sounded unchanged by the intervening years. Beginning in 2015 they issued fresh recordings on a regular basis, among them the 2019 full-length Immaculada High and the 2021 EP SLO BLO 4 FRNZ & SXY.

The band formed in 1991 when guitarist Kevin Whitley, bassist/vocalist Owen McMahon, and drummer Brent Prager came together. Already embedded in Austin, Texas’s active noise rock community—Whitley had previously played drums in the weirdo punk outfit Ed Hall—Cherubs soon landed on Trance Syndicate, the imprint run by Butthole Surfers drummer King Coffey. That label put out the group’s aggressive 1992 debut Icing, which captured their unrelenting approach. Several 7-inch singles followed, and a second album was already finished when Prager and McMahon came to blows after a show, ending the band. Heroin Man nevertheless appeared a few months later, now featuring Whitley on lead vocals and reflecting a pronounced shift in sound. Enough residual interest remained two years on to prompt the 1996 B-sides and rarities collection Short of Popular plus a split 7-inch with Fuckemos.

The Cherubs’ impact registered with a newer wave of noisy groups in the years that followed. A tribute album, Everyone’s Dead Before They Leave: A Tribute to the Cherubs, surfaced in 2013, and the original members announced their reunion the next year. Brutal Panda Records issued the long-awaited third album 2 Ynfynyty in March 2015, more than twenty years after its predecessor. Additional material arrived the following year in the form of the EP Fist in the Air. In late 2018 the group moved to Relapse Records, which released the turbulent 2019 album Immaculada High. They continued with the ten-track EP SLO BLO 4 FRNZ & SXY in 2021, mixing new songs, slowed-down remixes, and an acoustic version of the Immaculada High track “Sooey Pig.”