Cuffs – “Privilege” b/w “Archer” 7” (Ride the Snake)
Boston’s Cuffs are an All Star northeastern supergroup, featuring members of Pants Yell!, Big Trouble, and Reports teaming up to thoughtfully present some twee, twee, indie pop for gentlemen (of all genders). The gentle sweetness of “Privilege” is normally something far outside my purview, but Cuffs exhibit a dignified exuberance that roped me in. The spindly, layered guitar lines have a sweet hook, and despite sounding a bit like Braid for post-graduates, those qualities are balanced with guilelessness, and a rough-enough recording to keep it comfortably outside of Sea and Cake territory. “Archer” has a delicate center bookended by some punchy, rambunctious instrumental, that adds up to more than its initial sweetness. In fact, both songs manage to balance the soft with the hard (as they’d say on Project Runway), and these nice guys have won me over. They’d probably even tidy up your kitchen if you let them stay over on tour. Limited to 300 copies on 3 different “colorways” all of which are sold out from the fine folks at Ride the Snake, but the odd copy lurks in distros for the time being. (http://www.ridethesnakerecords.com)
(Killedbyjeff)
