Seizure 17: A rock
duo on the edge

Music Row
By Brian Rademaekers

When Seizure 17 hits your speakers, you’ll know it.
Rattling with the cranky and unsettling power of an AK-47 fired at close range, this Port Richmond post-punk and experimental outfit is exploding with an unbridled energy that is as addictive as it is ceaseless.
There’s a good chance that you already have heard them too, if you’re listening in the right places. Besides a handful of local gigs, their 2007 release, She Owns You, got decent airtime on area college radio, and even earned a few spins on the corporate dial at 94.1 WYSP.
At a concise four tracks, the jerky and adrenaline-addled songs on She Owns You are a dense intro to Seizure 17 that speaks volumes about the driving force behind their musical outlook. Their power primarily seems to be culled from an edgy and pervasive angst — a sentiment rooted in profound disappointment with the world that modern man has created for himself.
Coupled with that passionate rejection is a heroic sense of determination to tear down the worst in the world and recreate something more alive and, ultimately, more human.
It’s the same kind of revolutionary "lust for life" vigor espoused by the late 1970s punk movement, where the blandness of increasingly corporate American life was shunned in favor of a gutsy, more real version of creativity. The influence of that era is abundant in the work of Seizure 17, where dark and driving guitar chords build a structure that is filled in with haunting and almost tortured vocals.
Also present are a smattering of other movements, as is a healthy dose of originality that comes from Colin McLaughlin-Alcock and Jamie Campbell, the duo who make up Seizure 17.
In their songs can be found palpable traces of The Fall, Radiohead, Nirvana, Blonde Redhead and the Meat Puppets. All of this comes ripping through in their own solid sound, conveyed by McLaughlin-Alcock on guitar and Campbell on bass.
Both superbly take on vocals, and drums are provided via Stan the Robot, or, more plainly, a drum machine.
From the punchy coolness of Pocahontas, where Campbell’s vocals dominate, to the vitriolic and irreverent Lonely Day, Seizure 17 flaunts an undeniable skill for composing songs that are edgy and captivating.
The quality of their work to date, then, earns them a good bit of credit in faith when it comes to the awesomeness of their next project, Such a Bright Future.
Set to debut on South Street this Sunday evening, Such a Bright Future is a massive undertaking, encompassing somewhere around 20 new songs.
That staggering chunk of fresh music was the result of an eight-month process, but it doesn’t stop there.
The new compositions are to be synchronized with a multimedia projection of original animation and film with the goal of creating an experience that submerses audiences in the world of Seizure 17.
While the body of work by which to judge this local act isn’t quite extensive, the quality does inspire a trip to South Philly to see what these musicians have in mind.
If the music they already have banged out is any indication, the show planned for Such a Beautiful Future should be a mind-bending and scorching tour de force of ingenuity, energy and straight-up rock ’n’ roll goodness.
If nothing else, it is a no-holds-barred display of musical ambition and risk-taking — something far too rare these days. To check out She Owns You, released on Philly’s Father Divine Records, visit www.seizure17.com

Check it out . . .
Who: Seizure 17
What: A marathon of homegrown post-punk experimentalism with visuals to boot.
Where: The Tritone, 15th and South streets.
When: Sunday, Dec. 9, at 10 p.m. Tickets are $10.