Nato Coles: I’m familiar with his work, having done brief tours with the Modern Machines and Used Kids. The Blue Diamond Band is the next step in the timeline of the aforementioned bands, in that it’s really starting to channel DIY punk through the Bruce Springsteen/Tom Petty/classic rock’n’roll singer/songwriter filter, as opposed to vice versa. It threw me for a sec, because it was labeled as 33 (which bugs me on 7”s), but thought “this sounds pretty weird for Nate” and, sure enough, it’s 45. But the songs are great, and if there’s any justice, an incarnation of the Blue Diamond Band will end up with a residency somewhere in Vegas (or some other small desert casino town, probably to Nate’s liking). King Friday: Never heard of them before this, even though some research leads me to believe they’ve been around for a long time, but I like Florida. The whole aesthetic of the record looks like an old Lookout release, and this band kind of reminds me of a DIY punk Superchunk, with pretty awesome mid-tempo rock with the slightest little guitar intricacies. Plus, the singing reminds me of a Florida version of Mac from Superchunk, which I don’t know how to describe, but who cares? It means it’s good. Great split all around.
–joe (ADD)