Is there some Sonic Youth connection here that I am as yet unaware of? The video is on Sonic Youth TV YouTube and there is a similarity of growl in the music.*
They're from Chicago, so you might expect some meat packed into the music. There's a hint of The Mekons and that kind of old man, leathery post-punk. I like the atonal spidery nature of the vocals. A touch of MES? And "Hibernation Sickness" has a blown-out feel of early My Bloody Valentine underneath the massively American guitar sound. How is it so American, that sound? Does it have cheese in the crust?
"All Gone White" maintains a cool, mean wail throughout over motorik indie chug - "History's just/Objective memory/../Rewrite the parts/To keep your conscience clean". The vocals rilly rilly remind me of The Fall's "Extricate" album, and that's one of my favourite albums. So I'm happy about that. "Love Drug" is a bit over the top, but what can you do?
It's compact and rambling - like a tiny cub scout - and exactly the kind of music I can hear going down rilly rilly well at an ATP. That too fingers my gig gland with special tingly electric gloves on. But maybe that gives the music a distance too. If I'm imagining it in a live context, it might be it's not immediate enough to be what it is. (I'm reaching hard for significance here. Ow! That was my mental hamstring.) I want the power drilled into my face. I'm such a lazy listener.
"Brother Joliene" burns my inner ears and my third ears and my ears from my elbow. If I wasn't so short on tiempo, I'd give it another listen; but the lederhosen of history are creeping up the crack of possibility. Avanti!
Rating: Guzzling Glory out of Midwest Laidback Angst
*I think they might be on tour with the SY types.
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