Yeah, I haunt the first listen on NPR and seriously hit pay dirt from time to time. This week I have The Pop Group and Screaming Females new albums on heavy rotation. I might listen to these guys more than when the album is actually released.
People consider the Don Giovanni find Screaming Females latest, Rose Mountain, a pop breakthrough after the rough and tumble. Personally, I really liked Noun (Marissa Postermayer’s other band) first album and any way, surely Power Move was the power move. Around the time of castle talk I interviewed Jarrett Dougherty and he told me Dave Grohl was his favorite drummer. Now, nobody would claim was’t loud, you equally can’t doubt that he was a master and not a pounder. A song like “Wishing Well” here might be more melodic, poppier if you will, that we are used to, though Marissa will never sound girly, she doesn’t have that sort of voice, still this is standard issue SF and all the better for it – A-
The Pop Group? I was a HUGE fan in post-punk UK, they were a different world of synthesizer brought to a standstill by the Human League and buried by Duran Duran: the agit-prop band behind ‘She Is Beyond Good And Evil” announced their return earlier with the uglier than thou “Citizen Zombie” and the same named album doesn’t get much more commercial than that attitude for a reason voices of dissent. 35 years after the fact and it works pretty darn well. All harsh beats and distorted vocals -ugly but honest – B+
