Labels: self released
Review by: Andy Malcolm
This doesn’t happen all that often. When it does happen, I get this happy warm feeling, that someone kind of paid attention to what goes on here. Because the other day, I received a nice letter from a chap who plays in this band. It mentioned that he used to play in Hit Self Destruct and I had given them a good review (seven years ago) and maybe I’d like what he’s doing now. Well shit, I totally love what he’s doing now. This is exactly my kind of thing, and it is doubly thrilling to receive it unsolicited in the mail.
This 4 song demo opens with the quickfire “Well, I Do Lots of Things”, barely troubling the attention with a mere 96 seconds that buzz by excitedly. The vocals are yelped excitedly, sort of Chris Leo-ian, in a way. The guitar work is melodic and pacey, and will bring to mind stuff like Superchunk and the Promise Ring. You can see we’re on good ground right here, or at least the kind of ground that makes me jump up and down with a big grin on my face. A trampoline then. “The Barefoot Feel” follows on and establishes their sound more thoroughly over a longer track. I particularly love the late portion of this song where it drops out into some jangly, Van Pelt style guitar, and this smart, warm bass that lazily, semi-drunkenly waltzes around. Special. “Life in That Other Way” switches the vocals completely and this is more of a kind of awkward, geeky sounding, slow pop punk effort. Nice but a surprise after the first two songs. Cream of the crop is “A Precarious Grasp” which wraps things up, a simple one that just rolls along on a tide of midwestmo jangle and more of that delightful bass, whilst the vocals remain as inscrutable as they did on the first couple of tracks.
Again, I just have to reiterate what a treat it was to get this in the mail. Thanks, Pine Away!