Labels: Coffee Beat Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
This is fun. 5 songs of nervous tension and ponderings, all blurted out between hits of caffeine and wondering what to do next with their lives. LBD named this cassette “Other Band Tape” as they are all busy with other things, the most obvious of which is What Price, Wonderland? For this is not a world away from those guys. Not even a street away. It gives vocalist Joe an opportunity to filter some poppier post punk influences into his music and it pays off in bags. The vocals remind me a whole lot of the rather unfairly ignored Cosmos, and you get some extremely subtle harmonies blending together with the hectic guitar work to great effect. There are occasional moments of reflection, but 4 songs clock in at less than 90 seconds each. I am generally not a fan of short songs other than those committed by Assfactor4 but LBD do not get it wrong. You are not left wondering if they could have spun these ideas out into fully fledged epics. They work well enough thank you very much as perfectly formed vignettes. Only once do they feel the need to flesh things out further, and at 3 minutes and 52 seconds “Ron Tracey” is their Lord of the Rings. Even then the song is pretty much done at 90 seconds, before they get their jam on, dropping in an Indian Summer-y guitar widdle solo to finish things bleakly.
These guys are ready. One of the most accomplished demos I have heard in ages, both in terms of the music from the dudes in the band and the perfect recording. Super impressed.