CHAOS: Aural Meets Visual

It's impossible to separate the aural from the visual with SSION; frontman Cody Critcheloe's vision is equal parts surface and substance. As aesthetic fascist, he designs bizarro sets and costumes—previous incarnations have included plushy barnyard critters in a sort of apeshit ode to Animal Farm, and a band full of yellow-toothed, dead-werewolf gutter punks who're so loaded they can't even find a set of matching shoes—plus makes jarring, garish, glittery, half-animated collage videos to screen behind stage performances. His sick, hilarious, vibrant sense of humor's meant not to shock but to push the mind into What-the-eff-land, where we are all free and wild and can do whatever we want.

"I'm Going Crazy," a video he directed for Scream Club—a queer, ghetto fab, punk/hip-hop/disco outfit comprised of two women, Sarah Adorable and Cindy Wonderful, who run Crunks Not Dead—debuted on YouTube two weeks ago. The two start off as inmates in a jail, a wacky film noir scene that looks like something out of The Forbidden Zone, and ends with the two women picking up chicks on a road trip in an animated yellow convertible. Meanwhile, Cindy and Sarah somewhat scandalously delineate what could be the BS of any relationship involving at least one woman, but what seems like the pitfalls of their own.

Currently Critcheloe's firming up SSION's new vibe—gay-as-hell hi-NRG techno plus soul singer—with collaborator J. Ashley Miller, best known (and even that's not saying much) as the singer, guitarist and kazoo player in Kansas City's porchy, sex-drizzled Golden Calves. On "Teacake at the Top," (listen at myspace.com/jashleymillerandthegoldencalves) the guitar's a ravaged squiggle taunting a nasty bass line while aching bluesy vocals egg on a drummer who would rather be doing something else. The duo's laid-back and barely together, the kind of cement-spit guys who seem like they'd never notice or care if their flies were unzipped. Perfect match for one Mr. Cody Critcheloe.