Shoooooooooting straight through my brain and touching all kinds of neural storage relating to the sounds of the indie pop past of the Pacific Northwest (does anyone say Pacific Southwest? Pacific Mid-Coast? Let me know, thanks…). I spent a bunch of time in my youth listening to MIRAH, WOLF COLONEL, DEAR NORA, BUILT TO SPILL, HALO BENDERS, THE BLOW…that kind of thing… the second great period of K RECORDS era sort of deal. I don’t mean to say that BABY MOLLUSK is ripping that music sooooo hard or anything, just that the music that this band makes, takes me there, right away. That’s a treasured place in the American Music Underground for me. So, a great place to start with a new band, as this band is to me.
Anyway, BABY MOLLUSK are a Brooklyn band. Rachel Gordon steers the ship, and here on this tape called BABY MOLLUSK AND THE BIG BABIES she’s offered up 8 songs, and there’s not a bad one in the bunch. Slightly messy harmonies piled on top of jangly, or fuzzy guitar and bass, and drums. Starts and stops, and smart moves back and forth between quiet, and getting all punk up in here or whatever. Heartfelt music is nearly dead. It’s either faked, made fun of, replaced by irony, or done badly most of the time these days. That’s the biggest reason why this music, filled with stories of relationships and personal reflection, and set to simple pop rock arrangements, is SCREAMING in my face about how wonderful it is.
Gordon’s voice is perfect and endearing, and the situation never gets too twee or anything. And very importantly, she and the band are not afraid to rock. Damn, what a recipe. This tape that is BABY MOLLUSK’s latest release came out on MT. HOME ARTS ( I think) and hey, it’s lovely, and I want to listen to it o’er and o’er. Bedroom pop, delicate and full of hooks that are not overbearing but rather hang strangely, and precariously from the flow of singer Gordon. “Feelin’ Like A Bean” is my favorite of the bunch. Guitar chugs along pulling some of those wobbly harmonies with it. A loud quiet loud situation with a strange structure. At only a minute-and-a-half it is slight, but I am into every move and I’ve now listened to the song like 20 times. Grab this if you even still can. And Rachel, come up to Boston, there’s a whole bunch of folks up here that are looking for what you are selling.
