Labels: AlbTwo Records – Cool Your Jets – Struggletown
Review by: MH
Here’s some indie rock from Scotland from a band with a fine line in puns (“mindie-rock” as proclaimed on the Bandcamp page). It’s another band I’ve not heard before despite them being around for a good five years or so judging by the releases listed on Bandcamp. One of the main reasons for me picking this up from the review pile was that I noticed recently that they were touring with Pjaro so I thought I’d give this one a go. They don’t sound like Pjaro (who does?) but they are similarly hard to pigeonhole. There’s an appreciation of 90s indie rock afoot and I’d throw in a Pavement reference too with the mid-paced awkwardness to their sound. You can tell they like Sebadoh too – the record was recorded at a place called Bakesale Recordings. I’ll state the obvious here about the Scottish accent in the vocals. “Pagan Pageant” is an early highlight – it’s a little slower and ramshackle. There are also lots of repeated riffs which ring through the tracks and the songs have a little sadness to them on occasion although not too hefty a dose – you probably won’t bawl your eyes out or anything. There’s a nice raggedness to proceedings too and they let rip on occasion like on the heavier “dB” which again reminds me of that looser Pavement sound of old mixed with something more recent. This leads into “Last Bus (Emm Ess Bee) which might be the best track on here with its slower and deliberated plod. It has a downbeat vocal style and way more rowdy ending. I’d start with this track if you need a way in – it’s a great song. I don’t hear enough music like this these days – listened to it a bunch of times on a 30-hour journey back from London to Australia and I can see myself coming back to this pretty regularly.