Tonstartssbandht – Midnight Cobras 7” EP (Psychic Handshake)
Looks like the contemporary underground (for lack of a less shudder-worthy term), has finally pulled its head from its ass. This month’s run of review releases, while larger than normal, has nonetheless yielded a much better percentage of disparate bands/entities with one common factor: They are either on-the-level, or less frequently, next-level. Unless this is some cruelly elaborate carrot-waving prank, a cross-section of new records reveal that inspiration, balls, skills with a hook, forward-thinking, volume, force, subtlety, and not-giving-a-fuck are all back. Obviously, all these recently-scarce attributes rarely show up on the same record, and this one is no exception. But this band, one that has committed moniker suicide, transforms early Comets on Fire into what I always thought it should be anyway: Really, really loud pop. With a signature personality poking out through the blatant love of pre-Hot Tuna Ben Chasny, and a more understated resemblance to Wildildlife (an example of hemorrhaging inspiration and laminated Next-Level-Shit ID cards), Tonstartssbandht is the sort of band that reminds me why I’m in this mess. In closing, the world would be a much more accommodating place if SHITTY bands had names that rendered them impossible to recommend to other people. How in the hell am I supposed to word-of-mouth this ooga-boogaland nonsense? Black vinyl … pressing unknown, but probably not into the four digit realm. (http://www.myspace.com/psychichandshake)
(Andrew Earles)
