Labels: Save Your Generation
Review by: MH
Everyone loves a good deer these days. There are at least 300 current bands with the word ‘deer’ in their name right now. I can think of…er…about 3 right now anyway. Plus, Moose. And Moose Blood. And Fawn Spots. Well, they’re all ruminant mammals anyway. This band was compared to The Promise Ring, American Football and Benton Falls amongst others on the press release. I would say that Benton Falls are the most relevant here to my ears but there may be a touch of late Promise Ring in the vocals too. They are apparent veterans having history dating back to the mid-90s in other bands including Kid Brother Collective and The Most Dangerous Animal plus other bands that I am not familiar with such as Dead By Sunday and The Conqueror Worm.
On my first couple of listens to this I was wondering why this band had chosen to play the first half as full band and the second half acoustically. Then I realised that this is actually a five-song 10inch and the digital version has a load of bonus acoustic tracks. Which to review? I’ll talk about the lot anyway as I got a bit more focussed on subsequent listens. There is a 90s Midwest-y indiemo feel to the songs and the lyrics are downbeat and self-deprecating. I’m quite enjoying the guitar sound on here – it’s clean and pretty rather than twiddly. Songwriting-wise these guys know what they’re doing too. The acoustic versions are probably more for the die-hards but they stand up well to the acoustic treatment. One of those additional tracks that isn’t on the vinyl is the pick of the bunch – a sad track called “R.I.P. Alf” and it’s well worth sticking around for. It’s kinda nice all round. I’ve quite enjoyed it actually.