The Lacking Details

With so many new bands discovering and repurposing the swirling sounds of shoegaze, it’s no wonder original trailblazer is back with another collection of guitar-heavy near-instrumentals.

Americana with a punk-ass louche attitude always makes for a good bawdy time.

It’s an old recipe but it never fails: Mix some high-energy guitar rock, the kind with chuggy riffs, and put a female voice strong enough to withstand the maelstrom on top.

This is kept stripped-down and acerbic, completely aligned with the band’s original punk-folk ethic.

WIth their minimalist riffing, straight ahead drumming, and disaffected vocals, this band sounds so much like Parquet Courts I had to check that it wasn’t a side project

Straight up garage-billy from Spain, filled with surf rock, psychedelic, and British Invasion references. The vocals are in Spanish, but the bad bad attitude is unmistakable.

Electronic drums, layers and filigrees of keyboards, and falsetto choruses make for some glossy synthesizer soul music that wouldn’t be out of place on a late Eighties dance floor.

It’s indie pop, but it’s also heavily inflected with soul, country, R&B, western swing, and a bad attitude.

A collaboration of bad attitudes. The Melvins are the more disciplined of the two here but everyone’s affinity for big surly rock is running at 150%

This is salty, and tangy, and spicy, and sweet, like the musical equivalent of a Mexican tamarind candy. It sounds so Sixties and Seventies that it must be from Today.