Rating: NNN
If you’ve only read about this Cincinnati duo, you’d imagine their music as a much stranger beast than what you’ll hear on their debut. The pair use a battered old reel-to-reel tape machine to play their backing tracks, telephones instead of microphones and a megaphone, but the results are closer to the Killers’ indie-pop bombast than the experimental garage rock minimalism their gear evokes.
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Sure, there’s lots of thick saturated fuzz guitar throughout, but you’re more likely to notice the strings, horns and harpsichords. While the results are more conventional than their methods suggest, they’re skilled enough at straight-up pop that you’re prone to forget about the sonic gimmicks by the time you get to the end of the first track.
There’s not quite enough variety in mood to blow us away, but it’s still a strong debut, and they’ve got lots of potential.
Top track: Dryout
Bad Veins play the El Mocambo August 2.
