SHUT UP & LISTEN #1: Blaqk Audio - Making DDR emo, one track at a time

By Alex Berkman

About a month ago, a friend told me to check out Blaqk Audio, the side project of vocalist Davey Havok and guitarist Jade Puget of pop-punk mainstay AFI. Before listening to it though, he warned me that it may not be what I expect. Assuming I would hear something along the lines of “Terrible Lie” by Nine Inch Nails, I was surprised when VNV Nation-style industrial music started playing.

While listening to the track “Stiff Kittens” off of Blaqk Audio’s first release, Cexcells (Interscope, 2007), I thought about AFI’s career and Davey Havok’s musical progress with Jade Puget over the past few years.

Havok started AFI with friends in 1991 while in high school in Ukiah, CA. They were not especially talented and played typical California punk rock, but time and lineup changes affected the dynamic of the band drastically.

AFI is known today  for their dark themed, angst-ridden music. These themes did not appear until 1997 when Hunter Burgen replaced Geoff Kresge on bass. Burgen brought a sense of confidence and slower ballad-like songs to the band that had not been heard before. On Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (Nitro, 1997) Havok shows a greater degree of power in his voice and confidence in his melodies. Changes became more noticeable after Jade Puget joined AFI a year later.

Puget, also from Ukiah, CA, had a much different musical style than the other members of AFI. He brought a change in dynamics, which is most clearly heard in the song “Death of Seasons” off of Sing the Sorrow (Dreamwork, 2003). In the song were 20 of the most shocking seconds the band had ever produced musically - an industrial electronic breakdown in the middle of the track.

As a 17-year-old fan of punk rock at the time, hearing this was 20 seconds of shear madness and ingenuity in my mind. It was also the foreshadowing of what would become Blaqk Audio.

The evidence for changes in sound continued to appear on AFI’s most recent release, decemberunderground (Interscope, 2006). This record achieved awards for Best Record of the Year from various outlets.

And though AFI showed a great deal of departure from typical punk rock of today and yesterday, Blaqk Audio is still incomparable to AFI in any way.

Blaqk Audio is “dark electronic music,” as Puget described it in a Buzznet.com interview. Though Cexcells is a great achievement for Puget and Havok, it still isn’t a stellar record.

In the interview with Buzznet.com, they discussed how songs were written: Puget writes the songs, sends them to Havok, he lays down the melody and Puget doesn’t hear it again until he gets into the studio. They also said that they started writing while on tour with AFI.

From my perspective, Blaqk Audio is doomed to obscurity. The album will show great sales based on a fan-culture that AFI has established, but their sophomore attempt will not be as successful.

Cexcells is a good listen, even if it just to hear what Havok and Puget are trying to do, but some of the tracks, such as “Semiotic Love” and “Snuff on Digital” sound like they belong on a Dance Dance Revolution Soundtrack. It seems that Havok and Puget are trying too hard to achieve a sound that may be beyond them.