There's some thoroughly fun and uplifting energy to this debut EP of spanish group Sonic Youth Of Today and if you've been paying any attention in recent years, it's immediately obvious that it's the Beta Máximo dude at work here, transforming the same melodicism and noise pop-ish vibes into a similarly quirky synth punk context that, in addition to his own work so far, also calls to mind bits and pieces of stuff á la O-D-EX, Digital Leather, Mind Spiders, Spyroids, Freak Genes or that recent Emmet O'Connor LP.
Beats me what being particularly "motorcycle" is supposed to entail (having two wheels and a motor and drinking gasoline i think...) but i can say with more confidence that i like Heather The Jerk tunes a lot better when they're very motorcycle than when they're not so much, as this this new EP has been the missing data point for me to determine as much from its fuzzy little bubblegum-infused garage punk- and noise pop gems that come across like a mixture between the only great pop punk group in the world - i'm speaking of Fastbacks, of course - and the eighties noise-/fuzz pop masterpieces of early The Primitives singles, helped along in no small part by an impeccable bundle of new tunes propelled forward by what's no doubt the most eager performance we're heard of them so far.
Weird that this apparently all-year-round halloween-themed group never entered my radar before last year's Chumpire 247 EP, well... better late than never i guess. Their newest one delivers an even stronger set of new tunes that sound like an unlikely crossbreed of classic Spits, Why Bother?, Trauma Harness, Woolen Men in power pop mode and maybe even a slight hint of Hüsker Dü. Crazy deformed little creature that is, but miraculously it doesn't face any problems walking and singing and standing on its own three feet of varying length without falling over even once.
Now here's some excellent new garage-/synth-/post punk shit that's only tangentially egg-related but certainly a good bit Devo-fied nonetheless and best of all, pretty versatile and casually shapeshifting in its sonic parameters, as a result reminding me of an appropriately eclectic bunch of groups like Checkpoint, Kitchen People, Ghoulies, Fungas, Cherry Cheeks, Ausmuteants, early Powerplant, Electric Prawns 2 and Dr. Sure's Unusual Practice.
