VELCROS – Secret State
Genre: Post-Punk, Indie Rock, Garage Rock
VELCROS do well to understand that political paranoia and love anxiety are born out of similar fears. “Secret State” is stylish and hooky.
There are many who expect rock n’ roll to tell more than it actually does. Perhaps those that play in bands should take this as a compliment and up their game. Or, maybe they should question the business in which they’ve got themselves involved.
After all, it’s not long since Western rock bands have been accused of hidden secret spiritual messages designed to play with the brittle minds of the nation’s youth. Back in the unforgiving East, their rock counterparts were accused of hiding subversive political messages meant to incite riotous behaviour. Little of any of these claims have ever been proven.
VELCROS know the rumours, has read the memes and knows that suffering from a broken heart is not much different from being under constant surveillance. “Secret State” is as direct a pop song as you’re ever going to receive on these topics. Clocking in at two minutes, this is a tune determined to either get stuck in your head or fade away before you get a chance to decide you dislike it.
Late Check Out – Western
Genre: Stoner Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Alternative Rock
Late Check Out entertain an image of the modern outlaw as an anxiety-ridden fugitive. It’s enough to lead to some convincing psych-rock.
There’s a chance that every one of the mystery-filled, vaguely violent songs that you’ve ever heard got stored in a particular area of your brain. You might not know they’ve all gathered there. But there is a likelihood, small of curse, that on a particularly bad day of your life, they’ll all come flooding out.
Why did you listen to those murder-promoting compositions in the first place? Perhaps you were preparing yourself for the aforementioned fateful day without ever knowing it. Or, perhaps there was just something in the intense performance that usually accompanies such a song that you greedily needed for yourself.
If all of the songs about violence and murder that you’ve ever heard might one day combine into a new number, it may well sound a little bit like Late Check Out’s “Western.” It’s a tune that sounds like a desk salesman’s worst day, like a trip in a boiling car through the desert, like psychedelic rock made by people on the run from the law.
