Saturday, February 7, 2009

City Sweethearts "I'm a Mess" ep


This is a weird colloboration of ex-members making some great sounding bubblegum lo fi garage punk. The band features the likes of Andy and Taras from Riot 99 who were an amazing traditional UK punk sounding band and they are teaming up with Curtis and Joey from Vicious Cycle who were more of a raging early American hardcore sounding band. Joey doesn't play on this single, but I think he plays on the album. The singer Vassil was in the Young Governors and his lineage is most in line with the style of music they are playing. It is catchy. The title track makes me think of the Dream Dates and their song "The Mess You're In". Musically they remind me more of the Stooges crossed with that garage sound that dominated Wisconsin. A lyric from "Timeless" where Vassil claims "he was born in the wrong decade", is probably true, especially after listening to a sound that does justice to their retro sound. "Can't Stop Shaking" is probably my favourite on this single. It is the fastest song, it is a song about being caught up in a song , and there are these corny back up "whoas" that I love. This is an excellent debut release even if the sound did catch me off guard. They have a saying in soccer with games that have surprising results and that is "That's why you play the game." In City Sweethearts case the saying could be amended to say "that's why you give the disc a spin."

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