Labels: art for blind – Let Your Fingers Do the Walking – Quiet City
Review by: MH
Courtesy of three cool labels, this is the first vinyl release from Plaids who have blown me away on their previous output. These songs build more on the sound of the split with City Dweller and if you’ve paid attention to their previous releases it won’t surprise you that these are all numbered tracks – “seven” to “ten” this time out. This begs the question as to whether there will be a “thirteen” and on what number Plaids will self-implode. Who knows? In the meantime, this is another fantastic effort – four fast and raging tracks of Dischord-style punk with a big chunk of emo thrown in. The frantic opener, “seven”, is a belter – it flies off at a blistering pace once it gets going. I’m finding a favourite track hard to pick. “ten” is superb but I think “eight” might be the standout for me – this one opens with a breakneck, spazzy guitar riff that reminds me of Mohinder in its frenetic nature. It then flies along, hurling a load of frantic riffs at you before an almost singalong section towards the end and then that riff comes back and blows my head off again – I can’t get enough of this one. Every song is a cracker on here – the riffs get me, as do the changes of pace, the unhinged lyrics, the vocals and the hints of desperation and panic that creep in. There is a hell of a bite and frenzy to this and they also summon up the likes of Bullets*In and early End Of A Year in their sound. The other band that keeps springing to mind is Bob Tilton – it’s not necessarily that they sound that close, although there are certainly similarities, but they are a band that excite me in a similar way to when I first saw Bob Tilton. 2013 promises a whole load of cool stuff on the Plaids front too – splits with Football, etc., XAXAXA and No Action for starters; also a full length LP and a tour with Football, etc. Wait…something’s up with the artwork – they’ve only gone and thrown some colour in this time!