Catnap - Have You Seen Larry? - CD (2005)

Labels: NoSt8ment
Review by: Andy Malcolm

This is some pretty DIY noisey rock / post hc that we have here, and I have to say that it

is way better than what I was expecting, what with the slapdash cd artwork and the fact

that they have a song called “The Record Industry As A Giant Penis”. The first track is a

well constructed slice of herky-jerky rockage that builds up with shouty-spoken vocals into

almost mid 90s Slintmo style peaks. Once they get bored of the main song though they piss

about for a couple of minutes, being noisy which defies my tastes, but hey. When the bass

grooves and the guitars ring out nice and loudly, I enjoy the style that’s going on,

sounding to me like a blend of Hoover and Slint before throwing a hefty spanner into the

works and fucking their own song up. Things maintain the generally off kilter and noisy

leanings on “Pests”, moving away from the rockage of that first song that initially

endeared them to me, and fiddling about with bleeps and squirts and generally ignoring

structure. Which is fine if you like that kind of thing. I have a feeling they listen to a

lot records that I have never quite brought myself to check out, but never mind. Suddenly

on track 4 (the name is way too long to type out), they revert to a much more melodic indie

rock sound not a million miles from something like Pavement or Superchunk. I guess I am

lost now. There is one final song on here, a fairly repetitious but slightly non-descript song that I am having trouble coming up with words for.

Overall perhaps this is not right up my alley, but if you are more equipped to deal with a

band dispensing with everyday straight forwardness and flitting between styles than I, you

may well find this band is very enjoyable.