Send "The Death Set " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 Michel Poiccard is the Death Set’s second album as well as Belmondo’s character in the Godard movie Breathless. But it’s the first album released since the death of co-founder, Beau Velasco, in 2009. Though Velasco wasn’t touring with the band, he and the other founding member Johnny Siera had begun writing new material when Velasco suddenly died. Siera decided to continue on with the touring band, Jahphet Landis on drums and Daniel Walker on guitar and vocals, and it’s a good thing he did. Michel Poiccard continues in the vein of Worldwide’s loud, fast and catchy punky hip-hop mashups, and is almost as good. Velasco still has a ghostly presence here, not only because the Death Set’s sound hasn’t radically altered, but also because his voice haunts the album: the first track has Velasco saying, “I wanna take this tape and blow up your fuckin’ stereo” and later on “Is That a French Dog?”, we hear him appropriately reverb drenched (the sound of coming back from the dead) while narrating a strange dream. That leads into the only track over three minutes, “I Miss You Beau Velasco”, a sensitive and catchy tribute with churning guitar, repetitive synth lead, and buried vocals. If there is any change in the songwriting without Velasco, it’s an attempt at maturity represented by slower, melody driven songs. This album has one less track (17 instead of 18) and is 10 minutes longer than the last album, clocking in at just under 36 minutes. The Death Set always played catchy singalongs, but typically at breakneck speed. They explore their more “sensitive” side on the second half of the record with the ode to touring, “7PM Woke Up An Hour Ago” (with a guest spot from SpankRock), as well as “It’s Another Day”, “I Been Searching For This Song Called Fashion” and the last track, “Is It the End Again?”. All of these tracks are good and catchy, ready for the dance floor....full text |
| Pitchfork |
| "I wanna take this tape and blow up ya fuckin' stereo!" These are the first brash, goofily antagonistic words shouted on the Death Set's sophomore record, Michel Poiccard. It's a sort of perfect mantra for the Baltimore-by-way-of-Australia band, which makes an enthusiastic racket mixing ADD punk, leftover electroclash, and Licensed to Ill-era Beastie Boys. Sadly, the shouting voice belongs to founding member Beau Velasco, who died in 2009 of a drug overdose, only a year after the release of the band's debut, Worldwide. Even when not stated explicitly, most of Michel Poiccard feels like a love letter to Velasco from remaining founder Johnny Siera; there's a sadness and longing tucked into even songs that aren't ostensibly about Velasco. The most prudent elegy for Velasco would be continuing to smash shit up. And on tracks where they do-- the sweat-drenched "Chew It Like a Gun Gum" and "A Problem Is a Problem It Don't Matter Where You From"-- his spirit feels appropriately channeled. Credit producer and Baltimore club fixture XXXChange for giving these tracks bulkier production as well as livelier drums (a marked improvement over Worldwide's dinky beat programming). But elsewhere the Death Set ignore their wilder instincts in favor of a more emotionally hefty, ruminative feel, which makes sense considering the circumstances. "I Miss You Beau Velasco" is an ethereal goth-pop track that's as dour and weirdly uplifting as an early Smashing Pumpkins tune, while "Can You See Straight?" retains a hard-charging velocity and still taps into something unexpectedly somber....full text |
| Contactmusic |
| 'I wanna take this tape, and blow up ya fuckin' stereo!'. Michel Poiccard's opening track is five seconds long, and consists entirely of a band member growling those words. It's a statement of intent, and it's also the calm before the storm: five seconds of the band limbering up, pawing at the ground, and staring fixedly into the middle distance. Then they put their head down and charge. Thirty five minutes and seventeen tracks of party-punk later, you're left feeling a little shaken but keen to put the record on again. This is a band with a unswervable desire to rock the hell out. They're the bull, you're the china shop. This is music with roots in eighties hardcore punk, in the furious pummel of Bad Brains' 'Banned in D.C.' and the brattishness of very early Beastie Boys records. Each track sees the band getting from A to B with the minimum of fuss, drums crashing, guitars swarming all over the listener, vocals sardonic and mocking. They're unafraid to bring elements of electro and hip hop - Spank Rock guests on '7pm Woke Up An Hour Ago' - but this most definitely isn't a boundary-pushing album; instead, it's an LP which revels in the body-moving potential of fast, loud guitar music. All of the above may come as a slight surprise given the band's former guitarist Beau Velasco was found dead back prior to the recording of the album. Michel Poiccard features a song named after Velasco, and it's also difficult not to see references to the group's sad loss in the relatively reflective, Les Savy Fav-esque 'We Are Going Anywhere Man'. Otherwise, the group seem intent on remembering Velasco by playing the same balls-out, cathartic music they created when he was in the group....full text |
The Death Set lyrics
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