Labels: bakery outlet – The Company With the Golden Arm
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Tubers are one of those bands that right now seem a bit out of their time. DIY, post punk, no shit given if nobody likes it, horribly out of fashion… all those things apply. This should have been on Obscurist Press to be honest. “Shell Out” doesn’t even seem as popular as their debut LP. I can see why, it’s certainly not as instant, the music isn’t quite as catchy, and with barely 2:30 minutes dedicated to most songs on here it can be a little tough to gain a hook onto what they’re playing at. For me though, this is an excellent LP. The music is forceful and quickfire, yet maintains a complexity and intelligence that you don’t get from too many punk bands in 2008. In addition, Rich Diem’s vocals are shit hot. The singing primes each song with a desperate under-current, shifting the focus from the herky-jerky guitars. I guess that sonically they lie somewhere in the past with the likes of Mission of Burma. Or the Van Pelt. I still think they sound a bit like “Stealing From Our Favorite Thieves”, if not exactly. Or not at all. But something about their sound leads me back to that comparison. Each track seems to bust out, brimful of under-produced energy, although I am listening to this on shitty headphones on a PC with on-board Realtek sound, so take that with a pinch of salt.
This is a good record. I suspect it will gain little adulation right now, but maybe it will in 10 years time, when bloggers post it up as an MP5 directly streamable to your face and recall 2008, “MAN, TUBERS! DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN WE USED TO LEAVE THE HOUSE?” and all that.