Nobody likes a quitter. You either finish what you start, or you get the hell out of here, mister! That’s what my grandpappy always used to tell me, and he hand-painted every square inch of the U.S. Navy over his lifetime. Often while weeping into the sea.
I’ve discovered an exception to this rule in the form of Quitter, a Glasgow-based musician named Kenny Bates, who isn’t actually a quitter and is pretty driven and inspired a lot of the time. In fact, he’s the exact opposite of a quitter if you get my meaning. You don’t? OK, follow along, then.
On his second release as Quitter, Bates, fka Lefthand, mics up his bedroom or basement or wherever and records directly into his 4-track or, like when he has a live drummer and bass player (as he does on “For the Hell of It,” “Bert, I’m Searching for Oblivion,” and “Cooler”), into some digital apparatus (but these band-y ones might be 4-track-y too – who’s to say?). Undaunted by these recording limitations, Bates presses forward, presses record, and knocks out a batch of melancholy guitar-based indie tunes, just like our forebears did. Little fuzz here, little rockin’ out there, and you’ve got a finished product you can sink your teeth into. Quitter? Hardly. “Finisher” is more like it. “Champion.”
Quitter’s sound spans the decades since indie first formed, fully, from the firmament, a magmic eruption that hardened within minutes and stands to this day as a monument to all guitar-bearing songwriters. Strains of Pavement, Death Cab, and Beach Slang are present in Quitter’s DNA, and this self-titled cassette is as fully formed as the forebears. Formed in full. Fully. Firmament. Foundation. Fixodent.
Fuck it, I’m not writing anymore. I quit. Sorry grandpappy.
Quitter
Death Collective
--Ryan
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