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Standout Track: No. 4, “Good For Your Health,” a wobbly basement rocker with a hint of backwoods weirdo vigor. Guitarist and singer Perry Fustero punches out power chords while he rattles off things that do not do a body good, like being paranoid all the time. From there, it gets a little stranger. Brothers John and Richard Howard (both of D.C. slowcore revivalists Cigarette) keep the beat on bass and drums.
Musical Motivation: Losing your edge. After penning a run of sensitive, heartfelt tunes, Fustero felt the urge to write something a little more true to his anxiety-ridden, postgraduation mood. “It’s weird being out on your own after college and all that and finding your own place and where you fit in,” says Fustero, who is now 26. Not that he’s found it, yet: “Maybe a little more now than when I wrote that song.”
Organ Grinder: Pressed to explain his band’s name, Fustero admits that it was chosen mainly because it sounded cool. “It’s a name Richie came up with. There’s no real story behind it,” says Fustero. “It has a clean, young, angsty kind of feeling, but also this weird and disturbing factor.” He admits it has the ring of, say, a Troma-flick narrative: “What I usually imagine is an older guy, like 52, who has been drinking his whole life, who goes around kidnapping teenagers and doing liver transplants.”
Teen Liver plays with The Doozies and Passing Phases Dec. 21 at Restaurant Judy.
[audio:http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/files/2012/12/teenliver-goodforyourhealth.mp3|titles=teenliver-goodforyourhealth]