This is the second EP that we have been sent from this Philadelphia power trio. I like the title of this EP, and the music is pretty good as well.
This is a band who has fully absorbed the mid-1990s Minneapolis sound. I hear a little of The Replacements here, and there is a lot of Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner in the voice. Think early Soul Asylum -- when they were not so slickly produced as on Grave Dancers Union.
The EP Starts with All Fuzzed Out which, oddly enough, is not covered in JAMC levels of feedback. However, the guitar picks out a happy melody and the rhythm chugs nicely. This is a good rocker that ends with a really good instrumental jam.
It fades into Dirty Cigarettes, which is really catchy. The guitar soars, and the vocalist sings about listening to records when alone... It's like he knows me! But the beat that drives this one just gets my feet tapping. Great stuff.
The next song, American Girls And French Kisses is even faster. The band is playing at a blistering pace, and the voice sounds a little different, less gravelly, more echoed. I bet this gets the kids pogoing along at their shows.
And finally we wrap up the EP with We Are Nothing, in which the guitar is acoustic and lo-fi, a fuzzy strumming that reminds me of Billy Bragg.
This is pretty good. Sure, Beach Slang are not reinventing anything, but they do it well. If this record came out in the 1990s, i would have been playing it for everyone i knew. You are lucky -- you can just listen to it on BandCamp.
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