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Though this was a short, 35-minute opening set (for fellow local outfits Dead Stars and Heliotropes), it was a good opportunity to catch this fantastic new Brooklyn foursome before they embarked on a two-week SXSW tour. Singer Jim Stark mentioned that they were “trying out some things,” so the set focused more on new material, which will ostensibly appear on one of three scheduled 2012 releases (a full length is planned, as well as two EPs pessimistically titled Life Kills and Die Fast; they also just released a six-song EP of their January Thump Studio session with Jack Rabid, Live from the Rabid Sessions, available on iTunes). But that hardly mattered, as even unfamiliar tunes like “Inana (Submarine Song)” did not pale in comparison with those they played from their excellent debut LP, Gamma Rays Galaxy Rays Veda Rays, such as “Honey Pot” and the blistering “Our Ford” (they also did a more stripped-down reading of “All Your Pretty Fates” that seemed closer to the album’s bonus acoustic version, but done with heavier electric guitars).
Throughout, the potent, intricate rhythms of Tyson Reed Frawley and Jason Gates, the textural guitar squalls of Jimmy Jenkins, and Stark’s soaring, menthol-cool vocals proved to be a highly intoxicating combination. One imagines that such punishing, yet atmospheric guitar rock won’t be confined to such small, intimate rooms like this for long, so see them now.
