SWTHRT - 'Compact Disc'

Fresh from the ashes of my beloved Museum Mouth comes SWTHRT, band of a thousand pronunciations. Perhaps it means “Sweaty Hurts,” which I think is a sex thing. Maybe it’s an initialism for “South West Tammy Has Ripe Tomatoes,” which I think might also be a sex thing.

Or maybe it’s “Sweatshirt” and they just left out the second “s” to keep their logo even-lettered, but that seems too obvious.

Having done the whole punk rock by way of Lemuria with Museum Mouth, guitarist/vocalist/drummer/bassist Karl Kuehn has now moved on to post-punk with SWTHRT’s Compact Disc, aided by keyboardist Becca High. Some of Museum Mouth’s elements carry over, like the grainy, dry production style, but generally speaking, this is a whole new sound for Kuehn. Here, he cultivates some serious Joy Division/Cure circa Faith/Seventeen Seconds worship.

“Good Omens” opens the record with a sparse bassline a la “A Forest” before High brings in a bright keyboard line. The result is akin to a more lo-fi Pains of Being Pure at Heart, although with less adenoidal vocals. At only 26 minutes in length, Compact Disc doesn’t have much room for expanding beyond the formula “Good Omens” sets, although there are glimmers of shoegaze in tunes like “Maggie Valley.”

The problem with Compact Disc is that it draws from a style that’s pretty popular right now. Yeah, that means it should appeal to a wider fanbase than maybe Museum Mouth ever achieved, but it also means that there are more bands playing this kind of music. SWTHRT is good, but they don’t surpass their obvious inspirations. Throw in a frustrating band name, and you get something that, while solid, is also a little forgettable.

Museum Mouth - 'Tears in My Beer'

Museum Mouth self-released their full-length debut Tears in My Beer, but hopefully they’ll pick up a label soon. Beer boasts 10 tracks of fuzzy lo-fi punk rock – the meeting point between Vivian Girls’ aesthetics and early Lemuria’s energy. Just shy of the 20-minute mark, these songs are fat-free and catchy (that goes double for the 38-second “Jennifer”). Sure, it’s the second release I’ve reviewed this year with this kinda kiffy title, but it’s still pretty great. Somebody get stoked on this ASAP, please.

Just about everything clicks perfectly into place for the record. The muddy recording might have been a deliberate artistic choice or a matter of thriftiness; either way it benefits the punky style. Synths emerge from the haze when needed, like when they add a second hook to the excellent closing track “The End of Days.” Shit be swirling, but Savannah Levin’s vocals are still intelligible for those of us who want to learn the songs. Graham High’s guitars create a wall of noise Johnny Ramone-style, especially on that blurred intro to “Jerk Girls.” I don’t want to leave third member Karl Kuehn out, since he handles drums, keyboards and backing vox, but dude probably already knows he’s important to the band.

Admittedly, the band’s style of punk rock might have gotten old if the record actually lasted longer than an episode of The Simpsons, but that’s purely hypothetical, and therefore not much of a criticism. The rock hard, unrelenting reality is that Beer is the kind of punk record that should entertain Brooklynites with questionable haircuts and everyone else in equal measures. Sometimes the group utilizes Lemuria’s boy/girl vocal tics, sometimes they recall Low Budgets’ scrappy keys-‘n’-guitars, but most of the time, they just sound good. “Noise band” is a blog buzz phrase right now, but Museum Mouth is doing it better than most.