Rolling Stone Australia — June 2017

“Can we hang, no strings attached? Listen to

*NSynccassettes?”Atypicalcome-onfrom

Diet Cig, and an invitation tough to resist.

The New York boy/girl duo specialise in love-

sick fuzz-pop on their fantastic debut album

Swear I’m Good At This. Guitar-toting firecracker Alex Lu-

ciano keeps tripping over her own reluctant sentimental

streakinthesesardonicmodern-lovevignettes–asshe

sings,“It’shardtobepunkwhilewearingaskirt.”Even

when her melodies get sugary, Luciano never wusses out

as she contemplates the anxieties of youth, the terror of

adulthood and the ever-astonishing lameness of the male.

“Sixteen”hastobethebestsongeverwrittenaboutdat-

ing somebody with the same name (“It was weird in the

back of his truck/Moaning my own name while trying to

fuck”) while “Tummy Ache”, “I Don’t Know Her” and “Link

In Bio” raise the aggression level.

Thehighlight:“MaidoftheMist”,wheresheannounc-

es,“IwanttoholdaséanceforeveryheartI’vebroken/Put

themallinaroomandsay,getoverit.” ROB SHEFFIELD

BNQT

Volume 1

Bella Union★★★

A meeting of the indie super-

minds on accomplished debut

Eric Pulido and Midlake invite

Travis’s Fran Healy, Franz Fer-

dinand’s Alex Kapranos, Gran-

daddy’sJasonLytleandBand

Of Horses’ Ben Bridwell to come

outandplay.Pulido’s“Restart”

andHealy’s“L.A.OnMyMind”

both feature fuzzed-up guitars

and stack-heeled beats, sug-

gestingthere’saSeventiesglam

band busting to get out. “Real

Love” is their Traveling Wil-

burys moment, with a sting-

ing slide guitar that attempts to

wake the ghost of George Har-

rison. Kapranos and Healy ven-

turefurtheroutsidetheirday-

jobs than Lytle and Bridwell,

andwhileit’sabitofapatch-

work, the songs are more than

mere throwaways. BARRY DIVOLA

Mark Lanegan Band

GargoyleLiberator★★★★

Onetime Screaming Trees man

plunges into darkness anew

Lanegan is a noted shapeshift-

er. His present mode embraces

thedetritusofKrautrock,post-

punk,newwave,andEighties-

Nineties electro – a bent staked

outlikeablyonBlues Funer-

al(2012) andPhantom Radio

(2014).Gargoyleis bleaker than

thelatteralbum,mediatingat

times between Beasts of Bour-

bonandTangerineDream

(“Death’sHeadTattoo”).Abet-

tedby,amongothers,Josh

Homme, Lanegan draws sepul-

chral electro (“Blue Blue Sea”),

drum’n’bass (“Drunk On De-

struction”), and Peter Gabri-

el-esque feeling (“Goodbye To

Beauty”) into his signature neo-

Gothic web. Lanegan’s battered

baritone continues to carry the

weight of ages along with it.G.H.

Girlpool

Powerplant

ANTI-★★★★

Girlpool expand their sonic

palette on album number two

Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tiv-

idadcouldneverrecapturethe

wide-eyed wonder of their 2015

debutBefore the World Was Big,

which delicately sketched out

thepair’spathfromadolescence

to adulthood. Now resolutely

traversing that big world they

are questioning decisions and

inviting adventure. It’s fitting,

then,thatasGirlpool’suniverse

hasexpandedsotoohastheir

sonic palette, the addition of

drummer Miles Wintner allow-

ingPowerplant’s songs to bub-

ble up into anthemic crescendos

–see“123”.Attheheartofitall,

though, beats Tucker and Tivi-

dad’s hypnotic vocal harmonies,

areassuringconstantinthese

uncharted seas. SARAH SMITH

Boss Hog

Brood XIn the Red★★★½

Cristina Martinez and Jon

Spencer get it on again

BroodXisatypeofcicadathat

spends 17 years underground,

emerging to lay eggs and die

soon afterwards. Appropriate,

then,thatBossHogshouldtake

it as an album title 17 years after

2000’sWhiteout. Cristina Mar-

tinez, a missing link between

Grace Slick and Karen O, lets

loose her scuzz-rock howl on

the gentrification of New York

(“Ground Control”) and her will

to survive (“Formula X”), while

thebandmashupblues-punk

fuzz with hip-hop breaks on “El-

evator”. Martinez’s husband Jon

Spencersparswithheronguitar

and occasional vocals. “What’s

wrongbaby?”heaskson“Rodeo

Chica”;“Everything,”shereplies.

It’s like a no-wave take on Nancy

SinatraandLeeHazelwood.B.D.

Diet CigSwear I’m Good At This

Frenchkiss Records★★★★

Diet Cig’s

Dazzling Debut

Brooklyn duo’s lovesick LP is a fantastic

fuzz-pop record

Ju ne, 2017

Reviews

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