Eureka California have their third album out in three years and this time they've recorded it in that renowned musical hotbed that is Yorkshire and Leeds specifically. It's housed with artwork that resembles the band's own brand of hot sauce and this suggests you're in for a hot mess of a record.
The album opens with Eureka California's Night In. This makes staying in seem both urgent and cool and it plays out over an intense clattering backbeat. It's hard to believe it comes from just two band members, singer and guitarist Jake Ward and Drummer Marie A Uhler. It's a great start and leads into Sign My Name With An X which features searing guitars and insistent drumming while sounding like a budget Dinosaur Jnr as they go a little bit Peter Tosh paranoid as they sign their names with an X.
Another Song About TV is no TV Party but a distortion-laden paean about wanting to watch and talk about TV rather than going out and having a good time, I'm sure they won't be watching political debates or reality TV. More like some good procedurals.
Sober Sister is anything but a sober song, being a full-on monster of clatter with cool ascending guitars as they get blackout drunk in the streets. Well it has to be done every once in a while. Ghosts is of course not an Albert Ayler rip off but rather a full on Sonic Youth Frightwig late night special with a few scary noises.
Side one closes with Fear And Loathing In the Classic City. This is a cool, strummed acoustic number about drinking and listening to the Modern Lovers which is the sort of rite of passage most of us recognise.
The B-side opens with Cobwebs On The Wind, an angry break up song full of clattering guitars in a My Bloody Valentine meets Pavement dust up groove. Damn he knows how to diss his ex as it ends in some great expiring guitars.
Caffeine is about the joys of caffeine-induced insomnia rather than a tribute to everyone's favourite Italian English late 90's punks no matter how much it might sound like them. It's delivered with an American accent once it gets good and bouncy and they could indeed be living on the 24th floor trying to get some sleep.
|
Realizing Your Actuality sounds like a self-help manual come to life over the sort of opening Band of Susans once utilised. In many ways you don't quite expect it as the singer's relationship is wrecked and he needs to walk out. Pain and Suffering and the need for a therapy session never sounded so good.
Everybody Had a Hard Year is a slowed-down strum about some of the band's heroes like Arthur Miller, Carol Reed and Tennessee Williams. It's a very cool little song about your heroes dying and in a dastardly year like this it seems like they have timed this song's release perfectly.
The album closes with I Will Write Mine Over Potomac which opens like they want to cover System Of A Down's Chop Suey before coming to their senses drinking some coffee and going on a mad clattering freak out. They steal a line or two from the theme from Cheers just to make sure everyone gets a smile before the album's over. This is a very cool LP overall. It's not quite as lo-fi as last year's album Crunch was, but it has plenty to recommend. Oh, and did I mention it's on very cool translucent green vinyl?
Find out more at Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records
Eureka California online
|
