Famous Mammals - Instant Pop Expressionism Now!

Friday, July 21, 2023 | Records | Art Punk, Garage Punk, Post Punk, Psychedelic

I got­ta say, fol­low­ing up on a promis­ing but still some­what un­der­cooked and in­con­sis­tent de­but tape from two years ago, i'm kin­da blown away by the hyp­not­ic pull of this sec­ond al­bum by an Oak­land (?) group hav­ing among their ranks mem­bers of a whole bunch of house­hold num­bers - The World, Andy Hu­man and the Rep­toids, Rays and Vi­o­lent Change might just be the most fa­mil­iar names among those for long­time watch­ers of this space, but these are just the tip of the ice­berg re­al­ly. While you can plau­si­bly pick out some sim­i­lar­i­ties to all these groups, i'm way more re­mind­ed of the re­laxed post- and garage punk of aus­tralian groups UV Race and Wire­heads, en­hanced with some fla­vor of british psy­che­delia (Vi­tal Idles come to mind as a con­tem­po­rary ref­er­ence), even a smidge of Wire and ear­ly Bar­rett-era Pink Floyd in Let The Light In. Just as well though, they might have drawn plen­ty of in­spi­ra­tion from '70s-'80s british DIY cul­ture with groups á la Mem­branes, Swell Maps, Mekons and Des­per­ate Bi­cy­cles be­ing the clos­est com­par­isons i can pull out of my ass right now.