If I heard this randomly and it wasn’t sent to me I don’t know if I’d guess it was made this century. Track one has this lo-fi dirtiness to it and the band at times sounds like something experimental from the 70’s that fans of the MC5 put together. Originally the band is from Vermont and relocated to Brooklyn and I gotta believe they are going to make a bunch of hipsters in Bushwick smile. The production hurts, like it feels like everything is clipping but I think it’s just overblown bass and reverbed out vocals that combine to make every track sound insane. This band I’m guessing is amazing live because you can’t listen to this EP and not feel excitement. However that being said, I don’t know how many times I could listen to this over and over as the production adds and detracts from it all at the same time and that is like near impossible to do. Track 4 dips into a song that sounds like MGMT possessed by Satan, and I’m ok with that. The indie pop aesthetic continues into track 5 “Leland” and makes you wonder if half this EP was written before the band gave a shit about Brooklyn hipsters but then said “Oh wait, lets make something they dig so we get shows and write ups”. I want to say in a weird way this band is like every weird band you can think of thrown into a blender like from Atari Teenage Riot to Death Grips to Television to Captain Beefheart to Butthole Surfers. If you like weird you came to the right place.
The full EP The Pons Estate drops August 13. Check "Leland (Club Mix)", the lead single/video above.
- Sam Lowry