Underwire – State Between (13th Floor Album Review)
It’s been incubating for nearly 15 years, now at last Underwire deliver their debut album State Between.
Formed from Pixie covers band The Proxies and Clash tribute band Wazzo Clash, Underwire have proved a popular live act in the Wellington indie music scene.
They play a seriously good, but fun-loving style of punk, post-punk, indie-rock, garage and psychobilly that is both nostalgic and forward-looking at the same time.
The Pixies influence and Clash inspiration is writ large on these tracks, but there’s also a nod in other, sometimes surprising, directions.
The album kicks off with a belting rock anthem Greener. It’s a full-on protest song calling-out poor planning, greenwashing and greed in the wake of the destruction caused by Cyclone Gabriel. The bass line is well-worn, but still infectious used by great bands from The Stooges to Echo and the Bunnymen with overlaying surf-rock guitars.
Someone told me you were going away
Then the world got washed in to the bay
Can’t think of tomorrow since yesterday
Now it’s on the other side
Johnny Mills sings in a perfect opener: a statement that Underwire are here and in your face and they ain’t backing down.
Simulation is a pure pop rant on a relationship that’s on the skids.
Sometime you talk like somebody was asking you,
Sometimes you talk like you got something to say
You always lived your life like we’re all watching you
It’s catchy, especially the guitar hook, and the chorus is a jump up and down yell out loud invitation for the crowd to join in. You can imagine a packed-out pub exploding at this number.
The surprises start with the Clash-flavoured track Always. The lead-in is ‘borrowed’ from Boys Light Up by Australian Crawl but Joe Strummer’s all over the rest of the track, another tale of love turned sour.
As always, there’s a girl, walking from your life and messing up your world
As always, I failed, helpless, heartless hopeless, what the hell.
That’s The Clash with a little help from our cousins across the ditch – maybe even a little Men At Work here…
Gloves Off is billed as a push back against the billionaire take-over of the world, but it can also be viewed as a bitter, bile-infected song about another affair gone wrong.
When I’m struggling for words
I picture ten thousand monkeys typing Shakespeare endlessly
And then I know just what to say
Don’t care if it’s passive or aggressive but fuck you anyway.
There’s humour in the hatred, light-hearted but punchy.
Now I’m looking up to space
Wondering if there’s room for billionaires to take their egos with them when they
When they fly and maybe they could take you on a one-way flight sometime.
The music is softer, poppier and ear-wormy… this one will stick in the head all day.
The Pixies reappear on Right To Crisis, another rage-fuelled energetic thrash around the room. But with a smile, of course.
Your right to crisis means more to you than me
Your tiny tantrums do not determine my reality
Another surprise lies waiting in Calling Out: this time it’s The Cars introducing the song, another downer on love…
And this time we take it all too far and we can’t take it anymore
Don’t speak now my lover the word you’re looking for is “over”
Already these songs seem familiar, like you’ve heard them all before, but, despite the darker mood, it’s comfortable and entertaining.
The song that inspired Underwire to start recording, resulting in this long player is Heatstroke. Another Pixies-influenced rock and roller, but the voice changes to Jane Brimblecombe’s earthy alto with a hint of Grace Slick about it.
When we were younger, we always knew
Instinctively trusted, but now we are bruised
You’ll never catch it, you never try
Baby you’ve lost it and so have I…
A lament of what could have been, perhaps a warning, a stark reminder that time marches on – too fast for most of us!
Title track State Between is trippy and esoteric with tremolo guitars, reverb, pounding rhythm and call-response vocals. A boisterous diversion and a bit of a breather…
Bad Evil Surf Music with it’s tom-tom heavy drums, heavy bass-line, tremolo guitars and half-whispered half-sung vocal is pure Cramps…
It gets to the brain it’s rotten to the core
It drives me insane and I want more
It going round and round this beast in my head
Not to be found but it must be fed
Dark and dangerous and addicitive.
Underwire’s lighter side is up next with Wish I Was A Cowboy. After the ‘Yeeha’ intro. it’s a country-punk up-tempo appeal for simpler times…but with a pogo rather than a line dance.
I wish I was a cowboy
I’d ride an expensive horse
And if you was to ask me
I’d probably say ‘of course’
More relationships, and they’re never boring, is the subject of Gravity. Mutual dependence and toxicity infuse this world.
I feel the earth move when youre walking
I see your lips move when you talk
But your eyes need the world to know
The lights are on but noones home
It’s raw and heartfelt rock and roll, a song that should be a hit!
State Between goes out on the pure punk screamer Falling All Over. Turn it up and burst those eardrums
I can’t get up for falling down
The Earth’s the thing that’s spinning round
I kiss the sky, I hit the ground
Tossing and tumbling again…
Johnny Mills sings most of these tracks and thrashes the guitar brilliantly backed up with some superb solos from Mark ‘Spike’ Roxburgh who also gets lead vocals on Calling Out, Jane Brimblecombe provides a depth with her backing vocals and a great turn as lead on Heatstroke, while Steve Tremewan links his bass to drums from Mark Hamill (not the Luke Skywalker version) for a tight rhythm section.
State Between has been some time in the making with about half the tracks released as singles over the past two or three years under the production lead of Scott Seabright and writing credits to four of the band members. After a spectacular opening half the album meanders a little, perhaps because of the time it’s taken to pull it all together. Some of the vocals could also use a little more kick – you don’t have to sing all the notes! You could imagine the D4’s Jimmy Christmas belting out some of these numbers, maybe a little more on the nose!
State Between is a great debut, even if some of the songs have been whipping around a while, heralding a great future for Underwire: one foot firmly in the past reviving, reliving and revelling in punk, rock and indie guitar music keeping it relevant, refreshed and riotous for a rebellious future.
Alex Robertson
State Between is out now!
