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GOOD GRIEF<br />
Rum For Your Life<br />
ZERO DEGREES NORTH<br />
The Life of Randy Randleson EP<br />
WEIRD RADICALS<br />
Flight of Fancy EP<br />
Good Grief had a pretty good run in 2015 with their<br />
debut EP and a full-length to boot. Having missed<br />
both at the time, I’d only heard of them occasionally,<br />
usually in reference to a live show. When I discovered<br />
they had put out a second full-length, Rum For Your<br />
Life, I figured I’d give it a spin. I ended up playing<br />
it over and over, with endless attention and infinite<br />
mirth. There are a lot of punk/indie/alternative bands<br />
making albums, but there is something perfect about<br />
the architecture of Good Grief’s new release.<br />
This feels like a complete album, not a collection of<br />
singles or a wayward project that ended up as 10<br />
songs. Depending on the day of the week, I could<br />
make any number of suggestions for singles or go-to<br />
tracks, but the truth is every track here is more than<br />
worth your time. “Nothing Left” could be a crossover<br />
hit, while “You Play a Mean Game of Telephone”<br />
recalls Built to Spill or early Modest Mouse. Even<br />
shorter tracks like “This Isn’t a Freudian Slip” or<br />
“Marla Singer” are buoyant in their brevity.<br />
How do you decide between “Cursed Like Cattle,”<br />
with its near math rock approach to a gothabilly<br />
groove, and the jangle guitar indie pop of the<br />
title track? You don’t have to—just let them play<br />
one after the other like they’re supposed to. Next<br />
up is the mid-tempo punk anthem of “Time Well<br />
Wasted” and the timeless proto punk of “Needs Vs<br />
Wants,” both of equal parity. The album concludes<br />
with the combo of “The Host” and “(I’m/You’re)<br />
Dimming Light.” The former I originally thought was<br />
the finale on first listen, to discover that an even<br />
better ending is the latter. Rum For Your Life is nearly<br />
perfect in its imperfection.<br />
Zero Degrees North first introduced Randy on their<br />
first single in January 2016. They followed it up with<br />
a magnificent full-length called Mandatory Story<br />
Time last September, which I totally missed out on.<br />
This year they continued the story of Randy with the<br />
release of The Life of Randy Randleson EP. According<br />
to the band, “The Life of Randy Randleson is about<br />
some poor dude’s life. It kinda sucks hardcore.”<br />
Luckily, the record doesn’t.<br />
Zero Degrees North are a teen punk band consisting<br />
of Garrett Reimann, Annabelle Hawkins and Ava<br />
Fox, who are making some of my favorite music in<br />
this town. Right from the get-go, you want “Nuns”<br />
to be two minutes longer, because it achieves near<br />
perfection in just over a minute. This is followed by<br />
the grunge revivalism of “Mud,” which is a perfect<br />
college radio single. “The Other Song” is the first<br />
song from the record to get a video, and it’s more<br />
exposition on the lack of opportunity and ability in our<br />
loser’s life. It’s rambunctious and rowdy, perhaps a bit<br />
like Randy himself.<br />
Next they present Mr. Randleson with no semblance<br />
of sympathy, but more than a touch of schadenfreude.<br />
The Elephant Six Collective would have had a field<br />
day with “TeeVee Time,” and someone should<br />
probably get a copy of the record to Julian Koster<br />
for this tune alone. It seems to turn its attention to<br />
the result of Randy’s two broken condoms, as does<br />
“Randy’s Son.” The latter is from the son’s point<br />
of view, wondering about his alcoholic father who<br />
ran away from the family. The record concludes<br />
with “March of the Idiots,” which, after all the<br />
magnificence that precedes it, still stands out as my<br />
favorite track.<br />
Last year, Weird Radicals made their debut by<br />
issuing one stunning single after another until they<br />
had a four-track EP. Andrew Cameron Cline and Nick<br />
Florence have combined their unusual histories to<br />
create songs not of this time: anachronistic odes<br />
to the British Invasion, Power Pop and Freak Beat<br />
flourishes. It’s not revivalism. If anything, this duo<br />
is revitalizing the genre rather than aping it, which<br />
becomes crystal clear on their new EP, Flight of Fancy.<br />
It features six tunes that make it seem like these<br />
guys will just keep pumping out singles.<br />
Long story short, there’s not a duff track in the bunch,<br />
and I’d be hard pressed to pick the best of this six<br />
pack, which speaks more to their songwriting talent<br />
and love of hooks, to be sure. The one-two punch<br />
opener of “Agoraphobic” and “Disappearer” will<br />
make you a believer. Exploring the map of Cheap<br />
Trick, Badfinger and Raspberries from the 1970s<br />
serves them well on their own adventure. Sure,<br />
there’s a Beatles backbone to their stuff, and who<br />
the hell can pull that off without sounding contrived?<br />
Well, Weird Radicals can.<br />
“Heavy Heart” finishes the first half with a slightly<br />
different groove and a buried clap track, a little more<br />
into rock than the first two tracks. Introspective<br />
rock, but rock nonetheless. Ironically, “John Lennon<br />
(Headbangin’)” sounds nothing like The Beatles and<br />
rocks even harder to evade such comparison, while<br />
bordering on post punk angst with a new wave vibe.<br />
“Human Being” returns to indie pop territory and recalls<br />
Phil Spector and Brian Wilson more than anything<br />
else. After all the strings and madness of “Human<br />
Being,” Weird Radicals finish with the indie rock<br />
rave-up “Torches,” which is just waiting for a video.<br />
One of the more engaging and enjoyable records of<br />
the year—pure summer soundtrack material.<br />
32 JAVA<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
Sounds Around Town By Mitchell L. Hillman
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