Great name for a band, and as the press release notes, it’s ‘more of an aesthetic than a work ethic. [Tucker] Rountree and company have methodically combined the flannel laden apathy of the grunge era with the ironic vanity and frenzy of the current internet age.’ So guys, you’ve got my attention: how long can you hold it before I nod off or go and do something else to keep my short little attention span fulfilled?
Heavy chorused guitars clang and spiral in all directions on the frenetic opener, ‘Out of Body Experience’: it’s uptempo indie rock with a punky edge, swamped in shoegaze FX to create a searing wall of sound that’s at once abrasive and dreamy. And like that, I’m hooked.
‘Sometimes You Gotta Die’ is slower, strung-out over a spindly guitar awash with reverb that explodes in the choruses. The songs nihilistic No-Wave feel is completed by the refrain, ‘Sometimes you gotta die just to know you’re alive.’ ‘Fight the Babysitter’s Boyfriend’ marries big, fuzzy guitars to a colossal chorus and slings in some samples for good measure. Then it’s on to rabble-rousing stompalong ‘Who Killed Kennedy’, which sounds like the Jesus and Mary Chain playing Kraftwerk at double speed.
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The gothy ‘See Right Through’ is tense and tetchy, and the raucous punky scrawl of ‘Thighmaster’ is all about the power. ‘I’ve got a Thighmaster / It makes me feel good’ might not be Shakespeare, but somehow it works. The final track, ‘I Don’t Wanna Be a Yuppie’ is a full-on balls-out grunger, the twin vocals reclaiming slackerdom as the lifestyle of choice against a maelstrom of guitars that die painfully in a howl of feedback. As the noise dies down. the only thing that’s slack is my jaw. Nothing short of awesome.
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