Indie punk with moaned vocals and an all-consuming fuzzy guitar tone. Sounds like an even sleepier version of early Dinosaur Jr. I’ve got mixed feelings about this. I am a huge fan of mid-’80s proto-alt rock and love hearing a resurgence of this style in current punk. If I had MP3s of this EP, “Drones” and “Enter the Bats” would make it onto quite a few playlists. But, I’m hesitant to tell people to go buy this when it’s not the least bit original. Two of the five songs are minute-long guitar noodlings, and this could have been a 7”. This band is from Maryland, but not the surf rock Phantom Limbs, who are also from Maryland, or the Oakland synthpunk band of the same name. Even their name is unoriginal. Still, I will listen to this a few more times, and that’s more than I can say about most records that I review.
–CT Terry (Clown School)