MELOMANIA bite one with Truth Club, Carrtoons, and Short Fictions
but one bite will not be all ye receive..
TRUTH CLUB - Running From The Chase [LP/CD](Double Double Whammy/Redeye)
After a pair of promising singles (the Husker Du-ish rush of “Blue Eternal” contrasted with the Pavement-ian majesty of “Exit Cycle,”) their first album in four years shows growth and command, but not as much daring as the range indicated by the pair of blazing pre-releases. Opening with the evocative “Suffer Debt” is a real challenge, and the sweetly chiming/pulsing “Uh Oh” offsets it very well. However, the middle blends together far too easily into an aural gray sound (which honestly may be its intent.) “Siphon” promises a swirling ending that pushes guitars in from everywhere, but “Dancing Around My Tongue” is one Malkmus-ian drone too much. Thankfully, “the chase/Running From The Chase” introduces Travis Harrington’s ability to sing like Travis Morrison of The Dismemberment Plan. The back half’s twangy, messy, dissonant chords may hold the promise for their next album to veer through emotions like the classic first side of “Emergency & I.” Still, Truth Club is doing its best to separate itself from the spate of guitar-driven Indie Rock that R.I.Y.L. lists and evil algorithms will aggregate them with.
CARRTOONS - Saturday Night [LP](Wichita/Redeye)
Ben Carr vaults over the promise of his previous releases ("Saturday Morning") as a producer and beatmaker on this surprising Indie/R&B mix. With drum sounds that could appeal to Daptone/Colemine fans (Halie Supreme on "Spaceships") and modern Hip-Hop flavored rollers that shout out Drake (Rae Khalil on the sublime "Grace" gives us the brilliant "there's a time and place for all things/I learned of a lot of this from Aubrey,") Carr even adds just the right mixture of effects and a hot direct snare to the dreamy "Fool For Your Love." "Saturday Night" is Seventies Soul filtered through Hip-Hop with spots from Jay Prince ("I Choose You") and so many modern R&B voices in waiting. Outside of the superb single "Grace," Carr's collaboration with Reuben James and Joanna Teters on "Put Me On" is a silky Soul delight that could appeal to everyone with Seventies Isleys, Eighties Loose Ends, and Nineties D'Angelo bouncing around in their playlist.
SHORT FICTIONS - Oblivion Will Own Me And Death Alone Will Love Me (Void Filler)[LP](Lauren Records)
Pittsburgh's Short Fictions continues Punk's most vibrant year in a long while with the Buzzcocks-meet-Titus Andronicus anthemic-yet-satiric gutpunch here. Like Soft Kill, Short Fictions can be so earnest it almost hurts when it hits its target. "Reno Nevada, January 2020" is a thriller complete with Springsteen-like bells and overdriven bass. Unlike all the other pop-punkers whom they dust, Short Fictions even manages to make their crammed poetic enjambment lines work in their favor. Short and to the point, the eleven tracks race by in 24 minutes with interludes (the Titus-ian "I Cannot Possibly Perceive the Least Kinship Now Between The Dead Girl and Myself Inevitably Dreary." - a title you can repeat six times while it plays) and weird, wild, short statements ("I'm Gonna Kill Myself with A Gun.") Short Fictions' sound is just as amped up and desperate as they are to be heard. "To Loved Ones Lost In The Pursuit of Foolish Passions" drives hard and never lets up even during its twang-pulling bridge. The high-wire trick here is how most of these parts are programmed in opposition to each other. However, because Short Fictions so successfully carries this lovelorn tone and a fresh strain of angst - it works perfectly. The two-minute basher "Wasting" is their single/calling card and we're guessing set closer. Its Green Day-ish structure rumbles perfectly into guitar pyrotechnics including double-guitar riffing. Call when you get home, Short Fictions, your world domination is only just beginning.
We hope you enjoyed this music. We always leave hoping that there is something on the list or the page for everyone. Support these artists. They are working on music that they love and firmly believe could be loved by others too. Glad to be your musical sifter/selector. Thank you. More on: New Music Report
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