Made In America - Gross Relations (2013)

Teasing us over the last two years with the Raven Sings The Blues EP and the Fuzzy Timelines 7", Brooklyn-based five-piece Gross Relations have finally released their excellent self-titled debut LP via Old Flame Records. Throughout the 10 song album Gross Relations manages to connect the dots between lo-fi and full-on garage pop in all of it's distorted glory. With fuzzy guitars, layered synthesizers, crooning vocals, and ridiculously infectious hooks the entire album will have you shuffling your feet from beginning to end.

Start with "Discovery Zone" and "Cut The Final Scene", watch the video for "Fuzzy Timelines" and then listen to the whole album around 100 times in a row like I did.

Made In America - Potty Mouth, "Hell Bent" (2013)

Bands like Northhampton, Massachusettes alt-rockers Potty Mouth make me happy. They make me happy because they sound so damn good and they sound so good because they've been able to accomplish what's always been so hard to do in music. That's allowing their influences to gently affect their music but not overwhelm it, letting it feel familiar but original. They also rock.

Potty Mouth are made up of Abby Weems, Ally Einbinder, Phoebe Harris, and Victoria Mandanas. The quartet formed in 2011 and quickly released their Sun Damaged EP the following year which emanated the best parts of 90's alternative from Bikini Kill to Sebadoh and Sonic Youth, that's driving rhythms and melodic choruses. Later that year they released the first single and video for the song "Damages" from what would become their debut album, Hell Bent.

2013 has them gearing up to release their debut Hell Bent on Marshall Teller Records (UK) and Old Flame Records (US). The release date is set for September 17th. If the single "The Spins" is any representation of what's on Hell Bent then you'd be doing yourself a favor to pre-order the album right now.

Made In America - Shark?

At least a couple of times a week I’ll spend a few hours at night trolling the depths of the internet for new music. This both alleviates occasional boredom and feeds my obsession for ear candy. I like to think that I have a pretty good finger on the pulse of what’s out there but in all reality I don’t, not even close, and more often than not, I’ll miss out on a band with some worthy tunes. One of those bands was Brooklyn, New York’s, Shark?

I caught Shark?, yep, pun intended, as one of the two openers for post-punk icons Mission Of Burma a couple of weeks ago at The Earl in Atlanta, Georgia. They were at the tail end of a small tour with a stop through Austin at South By Southwest on their way back home. I must admit that they didn’t get to me at first. Even now I wouldn’t be able to pick out the opening song from a playlist. I only remember that it was a somewhat mono-drone, fuzzy experience and I could even be wrong about that. It was probably as awesome as the rest of the set ended up being. 

Frontman Kevin Diamond knows how to write a song with a head-bobbing groove and a hook that will land the dourest of listeners. I know, the fishing puns, can’t stop, won’t stop. While inching my way towards the front of the stage I invisioned Shark? as a rock and roll love child between The Pixies and The Strokes who received the choicest DNA from both bands. 

 

But the song that did it for me and has been on constant repeat for the last two weeks is the song Shark?, from their 2012 album True Waste. The song was the set closer and it closed the deal for me. I immediately darted for the merch table and netted a copy of the album, on cassette no less. Thankfully there was a digital download card.

So enhance your life a little and check out “You Don’t Love Me Anymore”, fall in love with this band like I did, and then listen to their latest single “California Grrls” from their upcoming album Savior on Old Flame Records, expected to be released sometime this summer.

Here's a link to Shark?s latest single "California Girls" via Soundcloud.
More Shark? music available for a listen on their Bandcamp page.