One of the best qualities of Bob Pollard's prolific career is his innate ability to swing together loose and sludgy pop gems at a rapid pace. He's like the MacGyver of garage rock punk. Give him a guitar, a tape recorder, and a microphone, and he'll inevitably whip up something spectacular. Perhaps the most important quality of any good DIY pop album is its sincerity, and to what extent the music avoids a forced, contrite kind of sound. The DIY ethos is all the rage, but few do it with the sincerity of those old Guided By Voice records I always find myself dusting off on a regular basis. Martin Cohen, the former bassist for Nine Black Alps, has something going with his new outfit, Milk Maid, and the GBV references are a touch lofty, but well within the parameters of this kind of discussion. The band's debut album, Yucca, hits the ground with the gas pedal on the floorboards, marked by mature songwriting with varietal elements of garage, DIY, straight punk, and surf pop goodness. Nestled deliciously within all of this is also a huge nod to early 90's grunge – which is resurging lately with bands like Yuck and Kurt Vile and the Violators – slack rock with gritty attitude. After just three spins of Yucca, young bands squaring up in this genre could learn a trick or two. The album is infectious with absolutely zero filler or gimmick. Which brings it all back to the initial point at this paragraph's opening – give me a no-frills rock record with hooks and a heavier focus on songwriting than hipster gimmick, and I'll lay my money down.
Mazes' Jack Cooper was onto something when he signed Milk Maid to his own Suffering Jukebox label, recognizing the band's ability to compose quick-hitting jams with incredibly solid instrumentation and addictive arrangement. All 11 songs were recorded in Cohen's apartment, and while that is apparent in the recording, each of the tracks are incredibly well-produced, considering. "Such Fun," the album opener, blends all the wicked and sludgy garage rock stylings of the Wavves / Cloud Nothings trend with an angrier guitar riff than either could swing together. Importantly, even from the gun, the album is less pretentious and trendy and more based in traditional punk/pop roots. There is an assured swagger in the track that lets listeners know there will be sugary hooks, but delivered in an incredibly sincere and no-frills package.
Three distinct styles mesh themselves together on Yucca, particularly the straight-ahead head-butting punk of the album's opener, bluesy and intense guitar rock, and last, an incredibly accurate portrayal of 90's grunge ethos (complete with slow burning slack-rock balladry – the kind where emotionally flat vocal deliveries juxtapose huge emotional instrumentation). As for the first of the list, surf-pop inspired goodies "Dead Wrong," the 49 second "Kill Me Again," and "Sad Song" are sprinkled throughout the album as beacons of power pop excellence. If it's possible to have a 49 second song beg for repeat plays, "Kill Me Again" does this, getting in and out quickly with an addictive chord progression that begs for about three minutes more. Of course, the obligatory nods to Beach Boys inspired hooks are involved here, as (remember, I mentioned sincerity) Cohen swings for the fences in these more straightforward nuggets. Notably, the pop aspect of the record is wickedly good, plain and simple.
When listeners dig into this album, they'll hopefully notice how talented the trio is, as the great separator of this album is not so much the what (it's a power pop, garage rock album – easy to figure out), but the how. Slippery forays into sludgy folk, digressing and feedback drenched guitar solos, and even slow-burning balladry keep listeners on their toes. The slacker hooks of "Can't You See" are embellished with shredding guitar noodling in between each chorus. "Girl" begins with acoustic-electric guitar arpeggios, hand shakers, and mature progressions, giving the impression that Cohen's record collection is not only big, but he's also taken plenty of notes. The album shakes things up and never stays in one spot, and this is the mature element that makes this unique. The longest track of the album, "Not Me," clocks in at just under 4 minutes and has pop anthem written all over the central riff. It gallops through a thick slathering of candy-sweet surf pop; it could compliment well as a TV theme song on one spin, a summer road jam on another. The intensity lifts halfway through with a scorching and dissonant straight-punk guitar solo. Aside: Crocodiles' "I Wanna Kill" is easily one of the best songs in this vein in the last three years. Imagine an entire album of "I Wanna Kills." That is very much so what this album delivers.
Bands like Yuck embraced early 90's pop-grunge to great effect this year, but had to sacrifice something in the process. I was in high school during grunge's peak, and two spins through Yuck's album made me smile, but when bands try to 'go there' they have to bring it sincerely. To blast Yuck's quality record wouldn't be prudent here, but a side-by-side comparison is important. Many tracks on this album accurately portray this type of ethos, while Yuck's album is unabashedly gimmicky. Yucca's closer, "Someone You Thought You'd Forgot" is emotional, slow, and cavernous and hook-laden – all while not once sounding contrite or forced. The album's sonic peak, without a doubt, is "Back of Your Knees." It is loud, cranky and melodic, all qualities that could have fit right at home in my 1992 CD collection. The reverb filled guitar riff sort of whammy bars into a pulsing wobble. Feedback coats the sweet hooks until it bleeds into a laser-sharp guitar solo that drops off everything you need to know about this album – it is entirely real. Yucca is full of legitimately intelligent songwriting that is ready for multiple spins and enjoyment – without all of the hipster frills and gimmick. Yes, please.
Enjoy two cuts from the record below, and order the album at FatCat Records. The album hits the US shelves on August 2, but has been spinning across the pond for a couple of weeks now.
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[...] in "The Fear," check your pulse quickly. Either way, pair this up with the Milk Maid album I mentioned a few days ago, and you've got all the summer grass stain and boozing tunes [...]