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Bandname

Breakfast

Written by: PP on 30/03/2011 22:32:21

Had The Strokes started out by injecting a dose of fuzzy garage punk into their sound instead of cleaner and more polished indie rock, the resulting cocktail would have probably sounded like a combination of vibrant distortion, messy production, unpolished guitars and catchy melodies. That's basically the starting point to Philadelphia, US-based garage punk/pop unit Bandname, whose debut album "Breakfast" follows closely in the footsteps of early The Strokes while throwing in a healthy dose of 70s style rock'n'roll in the vein of The Kinks.

"Breakfast" has been left surprisingly raw and unproduced, allowing for eccentric distortion and funky bass lines to take the lead in developing three-minute garage pop pieces that thrive on the small glitches and unpolished instrumentation. The 70s style production benefits the record because it allows all of the aforementioned to create a charming retrospective vibe, as if Bandname are almost completely oblivious that the 90s and 2000s happened in the last two decades. It also results in a lively sound that has a certain buzz to it, a feeling only fortified whenever the crazy chick throws in her high pitch squeaky voice full of Courtney Love-style attitude straight from the early 90s grunge era.

While that's all good and dandy, and the songs generally emit a feeling of fun given their relaxed and care-free sound ("Flasthead" for instance), the buzzing underground sound unfortunately also adds an unnatural hipster - or should I call it 'cool/trendy'? - vibe to the record that occasionally makes the listener feel like the band are trying a little too hard to be retrospective and relevant in sound simultaneously. This is an overwhelmingly biased viewpoint, of course, but it's difficult to shake off a feeling that Bandname are just trying to emulate The Strokes without the mainstream tag attached to it just because it's mainstream and automatically bad. It's a minor detail, though, and overall "Breakfast" is a buoyant and bouncy record that probably is at its best when listened to on a vinyl player to hear all of the little scratches and details that have gone into the recording.

Download: Kid, New Usual
For the fans of: older The Strokes, The Kinks, Voidoids
Listen: Myspace

Release date November 2010
Self Aware Records