Say no to sissy pop. Spike your daily angst cocktail with a bold shot of COUSIN BRIAN, Philly’s finest bastards of the new wave. They spill over with East Bay-style vigor and piss, but they ditch the wall of sound in favor of post-rock complexity and composition. They don’t need no stinkin’ distortion to bust out gritty hardboiled rock nuggets, leaning toward reverb and odd chord voicings to create tension. Vocalist Sean soars and screeches like a young hungover Perry Farrell waking up in a ditch, mouth packed full of dirt and blood, but thankfully there is no Dave Navarro wankery to go along, while overdriven bass lines propel tunes like “Tired” and “Comfortably Bummed” into the stratosphere of astral protopunk jangle. Their first album, “First,” was just released in June on Mallrat Records out of Philadelphia, and you would be doing your music library a major disservice by skipping it. Pay what you will at their Bandcamp, and keep your eyes peeled for another tour in the near future!

First by Cousin Brian