No they’re not Jenny Morris’s band, they’re a bunch of name-stealing Yanks with a serious indie rock pedigree. Founders Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell are alumni of Some Girls, The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower and Dum Dum Girls, and their live band has included members of Blank Dogs and The Slits. Their second album, 2010’s Sleep Forever made a big splash on the indie music scene, appearing on NME and Rough Trade’s albums of the year lists. Featuring a naughty boy on the cover and ten fuzzy psychedelic rock tracks within, their latest album Endless Flowers is a tasty little indie treat.
The dreamy, poptastic songs are shown off to their best advantage by a chaotic, noisy recording style that ironically infuses the album with a sense of gravitas by refusing to take anything too seriously.
Album highlights include the gentle and romantic sounding No Black Clouds For Dee Dee (presumably written for Welchez’s wife, Dum Dum Girls frontwoman Dee Dee Penny), the dreamy Hung Up On A Flower and the sing-along pop song Bubblegum Trash, which is the aural equivalent of eating a k-bar in the Kings Arms carpark after applying the five second rule. My Surfing Lucifer is also a stand-out track – an unholy racket with backing vocals that sound as though they’re sung by a chorus of femmebots.
This album is more a wash of sound than a wall of noise, perfect for those who like to be transported away by spacey sonic layers. Endless Flowers might not change the course of music history but it will certainly brighten up a dreary afternoon.
Kathryn van Beek www.joyriderpromotions.com
Click here to listen to No Black Clouds For Dee Dee from Endless Flowers:
