What's with this new trend of band names involving exxxtra letters? Lovvers, Wizardzz, Wavves... what gives? Are we so hopelessly "postmodern" now that the only way to name our band is somewhat akin to choosing a url: based on the dregs of what's not taken? On what's Googleable? To make it harder for reviewers to type?
What's in a name? Rraaiillss is a band (or perhaps just guy + cat, judging by the album cover) from LA, thats name suggests to me a word intoned by a really stoned guy with the munchies, lounging on a couch, savoring its taste through a cloud of Dorito & cannabis fug. I wasn't expecting shoegaze, which, overall, seems to be a pretty straight-laced affair. In fact, come to think of it, making any sort of joke seems like it would instantly self-boot you from the club. If Shoegaze and Stoner Psychedelia and Garage Rock all meet on the street, what does Shoegaze look like? Look again to the album cover: skinny, earnest and black-clad. I'm not casting aspersions here, more an observation about the kind of culture that subgenres foster.
Visual aesthetics notwithstanding, Rraaiillss are pop n' roll shoegaze who's closest contemporary is Shocking Pinks. Their demo traffics in the same Jesus and Mary Chain-by-way-of-80s-John-Hughes-flick-angsty-yet-fun sort of sound, full of fuzzy guitars and those stiff-but-still-melodic baselines of the sort I really took for granted having lived through many some 30-odd years ago. Sprightly opener "Red String" provides the template: a wall of sound guitar strum meets semi-disaffected and "voice as just another instrument" sort of vocals, all backed by enthusiastic, snare-happy drumming.
"SBF85" (and oh, what a gorgeously perfect goth title) makes use of the aforementioned upfront bass and employs a Jim Reid like drawl; it's bittersweet, and easy to imagine it efficiently employed in the last third of any classic teen romance. "A Peeling" opens with bright chords, and reminds me a little of Pale Saints – big, washy guitars, but with surprising stops, starts, and inversions in the arrangement.
It's these sort of touches that work to best effect, and provide the album with it's most powerful moment – the great, and totally rocking closer "Staring Contest." There's more tension here between the rapid strums and busy drumming than you'd expect from anything self-labeled as shoegaze, which in a lot of ways, is sort of "anti-rock" with it's preference of atmosphere over rhythmic intesity. Soon enough, you're returned to more familiar 'gazer territory, with long, drawn-out melodies and backing vocals, but it's a totally thrilling moment, and one that you'd wish for more of. This being a demo, sure, there's production touches that could be added (the guitars could be bigger, for one thing), but that startling moment is where you see the real promise of what this band could capitalize on, and really distinguish it from the nebula of shoegaze nostalgia out there. Maybe this is where the extra letters come in.
Overall? Me lliikkee, and would love to hear mmoorree.
No comments:
Post a Comment