Gold Connections – Stick Figures
Gold Connections feel that, if people need to shove them into a genre categorization, it might as well be post-punk. “Stick Figures” doesn’t sound anything like post-punk, but just like many of the best bands corresponding to that label, Gold Connections might also be a bit too clever for their own good.
Instead, we find the band in a realm much more comfortable for well-meaning, comfortable, comforting indie-rockers. They sound like Pavement right after receiving a call from their local dealer.
“You don’t get hanged for a memory, you just get hung up“, frontman Will Marsh chirps while reminiscing over his town, the local library, and nights of getting inebriated.
It’s a good sound that the band is working towards, and, heaven knows, there’ll never be enough songs about getting trashed, stripping, or burning down the local police station. Free advice to young songwriters!
Needy Empty – Houseplants
Somewhere, in a messy bedroom, a tentative emo rock group is crying over not getting the name “Needy Empty” sooner. Instead, the name belongs to a Californian dark, dream pop unit that sounds like the Strokes if they’d been forced to take in the English weather for a year straight.
All chuckles aside, “Houseplants“, their recent single is an interesting recording. Vocals shrink away, under a soulful bass riff, foggy synths, and spacious backing vocals. There’s even room for the fuzz-box to get its turn on the record.
Overall, Needy Empty creates a swirling, foggy sound that does the project’s name justice. It may just answer the question, what would the garage-rock revival scene have sounded like under the wrong sort of pharmaceutical aid?
Demon In Me – Obituary
Demon In Me, the US group, is the kind of musical territory I rarely venture down. It’s not out of fear, or, even, disinterest. It just feels a bit like re-entering high-school years or reading through a teen’s journal. And, all that’s a bit disheartening.
But, this is not to say that the music here is bad. Far from it. In fact, it deserves recognition. Lyrics aside, the tortured, nearly out of breath singing, could well belong to a lost A Perfect Circle outtake. Obituary It’s a controlled, tense track, well performed and carefully produced. I admit that the lyrics, given the weighty subject the artist tackles here, for the most part, sound like a collage of vampire-romance novel blurbs, but why mind that?
With that being said, I was impressed with “Obituary“. Not many modern rock bands are able to execute their vision as cleanly the group is able to do here.
