ROBOT PRINCESS “Teen Vogue LP + Action Moves EP” (Fleeting Youth Records)

I’ve gotten past the point of having anything remotely relevant to say about indie rock. I just don’t, and it may be a disservice to budding rock bands, but I’m not in college anymore, my Built to Spill and Modest Mouse and Promise Ring and Unrest and Helium and Superchunk and Versus days are far behind me. That doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy this music, it’s that I’ve just said it all before, in a less exhausted voice in a thousand conversations with likeminded fans.

Maybe there’s a narrative here, where the past comes to repeat itself over and over and we can’t escape the cycle. I mean, in 1996 everybody was probably sick of talking about The Replacements and Hüsker Dü and Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies and My Bloody Valentine, and I was a wide-eyed and fresh-faced youngster ready for action. We’ve all been there, and we’ll all be there again. Someday Robot Princess will shake their heads at the kids discovering Speedy Ortiz and LVL UP and Radiator Hospital and Bleeding Rainbow and a million other rock bands who are all good and who all deserve the same amount of respect and admiration.

Does it get diluted down through the years*? I dunno. People don’t, I can’t comment on bands. If you want to live in the absolute now, then there’s Robot Princess from Brooklyn. They’re a five-piece, they make energetic and fun music, and you should pay attention to them. They’re just super likable, and I’m not gonna get down on this whole deal anymore. I’m actually cracking a smile right now, and for that I thank Robot Princess. I hope they sell a lot of these tapes, because they should. They’re for everyone, even bastardy old curmudgeons like me!

http://www.fleetingyouthrecords.com/

https://robotprincess.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan Masteller

 *editor's note: yes it get's diluted. try harder folks.                                                                                                                                     

SCOTDRAKULA “Burner + Break Up EP” (Fleeting Youth Records)

It seems like the #1 export from Australia to the US these days is garage rock. ScotDrakula are a three piece band from the land down under and represent the gentler side of that sound. They’ve picked up some steam late last year and now have a Facebook page that has over 2000 “likes” and a song review from Pitchfork to show for it. That being said, don’t write them off as a buzz band until after you’ve given them a chance. The tape includes their album “Burner” on the A side and their 2 song ep “Break Up” on side B. When it all comes down to it, internet bullshit aside, songs like “CrazyGoNuts” and “Dynopsykism” prove they deserve what attention they’ve gotten and they are due to get much more.

Stream + Buy: https://fleetingyouthrecords.bandcamp.com/album/burner-break-me-up-ep

-- Roy Blumenfeld

SLIPPERTAILS"There's A Disturbing Trend"(Fleeting Youth Records)

Grunge revivalists Slippertails are able to mimic Kurt Cobain's ability to transfer punk rock angst into Beatles pop-rock anthems and ballads. They flaunt their minimalism as a two piece with subtle tone changes, dual harmonies in four bar chord blues progressions, experimentations with drum machine metronome precision balance and fuzz,fuzz,fuzz. At times it sounds as old school as a Junior Kimbrough blues jam with a Melvins-esque drop octave, other times youthful with a Ringo Starr "Day Tripper" tempo. The cassettes' brightest moments channel Blue era Weezer with BORIS sized amplifiers and tone. This is to say there's a mopey, nerdy angst mixing with a heavy humbucker sliced-speaker baritone guitar riff.

At times the minimalism of this two piece is enough for me to stay engaged, but at times the guitar and drums feel too loud for folk rock but too ballady and intimate for punk rock. It exists in a weird rock purgatory of music trying to be both gritty and distorted but also intimate and sensitive. It particularly doesn't work when one member is screaming and the other is crooning. The combination is jarring and the setting too intimate to tolerate screaming. It needs a second layer of feedback in order for screaming to appropriately blend at the intensity of the other elements of the song. Or, you have to sound like a flaming skeleton warrior riding a gigantic dire wolf swinging a mallet.

But overall, more hits than misses on this release from Slippertails. If you are a fan of the genre, Slippertails offers some interesting takes on what is becoming a particularly significant style of rock in America culture, what the kids refer to as "the grunge".

Check it out!
http://fleetingyouthrecords.bandcamp.com/album/slippertails-theres-a-disturbing-trend
http://www.fleetingyouthrecords.com/p/slippertails.html

--Jack Turnbull

PASSENGER PERU (Fleeting Youth Records)

When I put this tape in for the first time, and noted that the main song crafter of the group was formerly a bassist for The Antlers (a band I’ve found somewhat underwhelming), I was tempted to write this off as an unexciting indie pop offering before even giving the sounds a chance. Within thirty seconds of the first song I felt like an asshole for thinking that, and I was won over immediately. On the surface the format for the songs is pretty standard, the kind of fun-time music for driving to the beach with your friends. That formula is easy to execute, what makes this a great tape is that underneath the surface the two multi-instrumentalists manning this band flesh out these tracks with inventive and hypnotic song structures and instrumentation. Over the span of these 10 songs, they manage to glue onto a poppy assemblage an assortment of buzzy bass riffs, chugging guitar passages, lush vocals, fuzzed out countrified licks, mechanized drum rhythms and sparse electronic noise. It’s enough variation to make each track exciting, free of filler, and quite danceable. Apparently the product of three years of basement studio work, this EP is clearly the work of two perfectionists fiddling with every song component until it fit the goldilocks standard of just right. Some of these tracks are genuine ear worms. In the Absence of Snow has been stuck in my head for days, thanks to it’s combination of sparkly acoustic guitar and thumping sub octave bass. It’s locked in my head and it doesn’t want to leave and this is a good thing. Very much recommended.

http://www.passengerperuband.com/#/about/4565751168

-- Timothy Johnson