Æges – “Roaches” b/w “Dirt” 7” (Hawthorne Street)
Chicago’s Æges offer a couple cuts of competent if not terribly groundbreaking sludge-power pop in the vein of Torche, or that band’s forbearer, Floor. “Roaches” opens with chiming guitars that give way to a meatheadbanger riff and good-cop-bad-cop vocals, and earns a +1 for dispensing with a guitar solo in favor of the extruded, echoed-outnoodle that fades in and out of the mix in its stead. The pop-grunge of “Dirt” shows early promise, with guitars sweet and heavy like a fudge-soaked brownie; but by the half-time/triplet-feel chorus sung by the “nice guys next door,” we’ve wandered into the heavily mined territory of what passed for emo circa the mid ‘90s, and it’s here that I take the point back. A buzzy, guitar-driven double-kick bridge/breakdown goes on to fully telegraph a heavy alt-rock influence – maybe a superfluous component that would have been better left by these guys in the cutout bin. Carapace-coordinated brown vinyl with a digital download card. (http://www.hawthornestreetrecords.com)
(Adam MacGregor)
