Black Lipstick – Sincerely
Posted by AlMachine on Monday, March 21, 2005

This is an album that harks back to an era when ‘Sonic Youth’ ruled. The Austin based four piece play dirty guitar riffs laid over a strong rhythmic beat, at times it sounds like rolling thunder and edges towards a stoner rock sound, particularly due to a rather minimalist and monotonic vocal delivery.

Throughout the album there are captivating hooks, and the band have clearly been influenced by ‘The Stones’ and the nine tunes on this album are all immensely catchy with the band exploring the contours of an epic sound particularly the instrumental breaks on ‘Grandma Airplane’.

Fans of Lou Barlow and Sebadoh will revel in the subtlety of these stress free compositions that are grounded yet defiant with lines like “…and you’ll hear me sing until they stick me in the ground...” and ‘..We’ll dig ourselves in like splinters in skin..” and it’s this attitude along with the abstract emotions about death on ‘Viva Max’ that really hit the mark.

What lets things down here is the almost unassuming nature of the tracks in part due to the lack of diversity. But at just over 38 minutes the band don’t overplay and stick to what they are clearly good at.

Greg Thomas



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