GRAHAM REPULSKI “I’m Even Younger Now” (self-released)

Graham Repulski – unabashed Phillies fan (probably, he’s from Philly), just like me, your favorite talking cartoon dog … I mean music writer – is seriously like the greatest lo-fi indie rocker going today. It’s not close, folks – I mean, Bob Pollard’s gotta be sixty by now, right? Repulski has Pollard’s flag, and he’s charging up the mountain to plant it at its peak. But wait – that’s not “Ol’ Dayton” Repulski’s got! That’s his own damn flag! And his legs are moving really fast! Well, if Repulski’s gonna start tossing out cassette releases left and right like parade participants toss candy to onlookers, then we’re obliged to cover every last one. Because that’s what I’m Even Younger Now is, fifteen tracks of blasted-out pop tunage recorded to Dictaphone or something. As he’s wont to do, Repulski heaves the artifacts unceremoniously in your general direction until you pay attention for once, and I’m here to continue that heaving with my words, because you really should pay attention. Do you like catchy rock and roll songs? Do you like them formed effortlessly, recorded quickly, and released with abandon before their creator moves on to the next project? Are you a fine, independent person who just “gets it”? Then Graham Repulski’s your man, and you should be blaring I’m Even Younger Now from the tape deck of your two-door Honda Accord. Who says 200,000 miles on a car is a pipe dream?

Graham Repulski Bandcamp page – holy crud, so many releases!

--Ryan Masteller

GRAHAM REPULSKI “Success Racist” (Rok Lok Records)

It doesn’t make a damn bit of difference if you cop Bob Pollard, as long as you do it right. I could end the review right there, because that’s as much as you need to know, I think. Do you like Bob Pollard? Good. Me too. Let’s hang out. Let’s listen to Graham Repulski.

Know why? Because Repulski has internalized the vibe of Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes. I know, I know, anybody can record bedroom rock and roll onto a four-track and get away with a passing grade, but it takes chops and songwriting skills to make it really work. Repulski’s got those chops – he’s at once tuneful and inventive, harnessing the hiss and fidelity of his recording setup and working within those confines to churn out hit after hit. His songs are mostly brief, not overstaying their welcome at all, and in fact growing in palatability because of their brevity.

Huh. Sounds like some other musician I know.

Oh yeah! Bob Pollard.

That’s a good thing. While the comparisons are obvious, Repulski’s songs are just too goddamn good to matter. You’ll have an amazing time with Success Racist. Did I mention that title is amazing too? Right up the ol’ Bob Pollard naming convention alley. There it is again! Sorry.

Repulski is from Philly, so that’s different. I hope he’s down with the hometown nine – I could talk Phillies baseball all day.

Oh shit! Todd Tobias mastered this thing. Well, there you go.

Rok Lok Records

Graham Repulski Bandcamp page – holy crud, so many releases!

--Ryan Masteller

GRAHAM REPULSKI “Octopus Bribes” (All Tens Music)

Have you considered getting yourself a vasectomy reversal just so you could beget a first born son, only to then sell him to Satan hisself in exchange for Guided By Voices getting back together and only writing songs like they did for ‘Bee Thousand’ and ‘Alien Lanes’? I almost did, but then I found a loophole: Graham Repulski is the reverse-Marty McFly of bedroom recording artists.

Thanks for saving me the codeine constipation, Graham. BP wrote over 1,600 songs, as per Wikipedia. I hope you’ll follow suit.

https://grahamrepulski.bandcamp.com/

- - Jacob An Kittenplan

GRAHAM REPULSKI “Maple Stag” (All Tens Music)

Ridgefield, NJ is home to highly prolific, slightly mysterious lo-fi home recording dude Graham Repulski, who sent us this tape “Maple Stag.”

As I listened to this tape, I thought, why make a tape of short noisy poppy lo-fi songs in a Robert Pollard voice? Doesn’t the world have enough of that? Upon my 3rd or 4th listen, though, because that happened, the answer seems to be: No. The world did not have enough 30-120 second lo-fi pop songs sung in a Robert Pollard voice, This “Maple Stag” tape is GREAT. 

Recorded on tape, released on the artist’s own label in a 50-copy cassette run, Graham Repulski seems to earnestly believe in the medium and has done the homework to get the sounds and the vibes just right. 

The highlight track from the first side is “Rubes,” has a sweet Polvo-y guitar tone and faraway vocals with a catchy refrain, crafty lyrics (“Braves and slits/ Offering awful options to us/Thick as dicks /Nothing the fixers can't six”). B side has some fun ones too, a quick and dirty 47 second song poem “Teach Your Children to be Valuable” and the heavy, almost metal sounding “Funeral Games”  are highlights, direct and deliberate songs with great texture with bent, inquisitive lyrics.

The tape goes out with some noise collage business, “Flux Rebate,” and I kind of wished it was another regular song, but OK man, you do you, I enjoyed the rest of the tape so much that I left it in to keep flipping.

I’m looking forward to giving the rest of this guy’s substantial catalog a listen, everything is streamable quick and easy and lots of fun. 

https://grahamrepulski.bandcamp.com/

-- Liv Carrow