The reviews keep rolling in. This time around, two bands with clever names make fractured pop that sounds like it rolled out of the garage dirty and beautiful. The New Year used to be Bedhead, so you know the band’s latest effort is going to be hypnotic and strange. Meanwhile, The Shaky Hands are new on the scene, but they sound lean and not mean, but sweetly deranged. Me likey! You read!
The Shaky Hands, Lunglight
The Shaky Hands’ debut is a shaken frame. The skewed riffage of “Neighbors” is a smoldering stomp, while the surprisingly danceable “World’s Gone Mad” could light up classic rock radio. “A New Parade” is a British invasion burner that feels like a Beach Boys B-side, and the fractured closer “Oh No” goes places visited by Flaming Lips and even Squirrel Nut Zippers, an epic oddity. MORE @ METROMIX
The New Year, The New Year
As the brains behind ’90s slowcore upstarts Bedhead, Matt and Bubba Kadane chose the turn of the century to uncork their next project, the New Year. The brothers’ chilled symphonic pop has influenced the likes of Death Cab for Cutie and Band of Horses, and while Bedhead’s catalog was charged with multiple electric guitars and strange time signatures, their 21st century iteration has matured into piano-based confessionals, collected in three well-regarded efforts, including this latest. MORE @ METROMIX