Heartbreaking Bravery

@heartbreaking_bravery | heartbreakingbraveryllc@gmail.com | @hbreakbravery

Tag: party

February 13, 2014

Carsick Cars – Wild Grass (Stream)

After two days enduring a seeming avalanche of new content from nearly every corner of music, Thursday has gradually tapered off of that relentless pace. Still, there were rippers from Thee Oh Sees, Tweens, Palehounds, Broken Gold, and Donovan Wolfington (especially Donovan Wolfington). There was also a new video from post-hardcore titans La Dispute (the band responsible for “King Park“, one of the most stunning pieces of songwriting in the past few years) and a beautiful, humorous, genre-encapsulating medley video from Don Giovanni’s Shellshag. At the end of the day, though, the song that stood out strongest was “Wild Grass” from Chinese trio Carsick Cars’ upcoming 3.

Carsick Cars may not be a huge name stateside but the band’s reputation in their homeland is certainly well-established and somewhere over the past nine years they managed to catch the ears of Sonic Youth (and subsequently play shows with them before their split). While Sonic Youth is, sadly, no more (at least for now), it’s easy to see their influence on Carsick Cars. If someone claimed that Steve Shelley was the person behind the kit on “Wild Grass”, there’d be no reason not to believe them. Their clean guitar tones are reminiscent of Moore and Ronaldo’s in the band’s latter-era run (Rather Ripped, in particular) and their pop sensibilities are similar. In fact, while “Wild Grass” does come off as an extraordinary Rather Ripped outtake (albeit one that’s sung in Chinese), where the bands do differ is in how far they take that pop sensibility. Carsick Cars are a few notches less noise-prone than their predecessors but they compensate for it with an emphasis on melody. That effortless powerpop melodicism is what makes “Wild Grass” really stand out and bodes well for the rest of 3.

While “Wild Grass” is certainly promising, it’s always been impossible to pin Carsick Cars down from record to record. They’ll likely have a few surprises in store for 3, which will be released later this month. If the past is any indication, those surprises will be worth the wait. Hear “Wild Grass” below and hope that the rest of 3 winds up being as good or better.


2 Comments
December 14, 2013

On the Up: Nervosas

Nervosas have had a whirlwind year since releasing their self-titled 2xLP debut album via Let’s Pretend Records. They went from a tucked-away secret to a band whose name seemingly dominated year-end conversations in more than a few specialty circles for the latter half of the year. Nearly every distro that Nervosas or any of their previous releases were available in are currently out of stock. After word got out about how good Nervosas really was, there was a grassroots word-of-mouth brushfire that propelled the band towards the upper echelons of punk.

Their trajectory has been one of the most impressive for any band this year and there’s reason to believe that their profile may eventually spill out towards even greater recognition. Nervosas’ sound skews towards Savages, who have experienced their fair share of success this year, only their take is less deliberate and quite a bit more fiery than their UK counterparts. Obvious no-wave influences are present but Nervosas are toying with them in ways that feel both new and unexpected. Nervosas itself is blinding and relentless but has an undeniable powerpop hue to it, not too dissimilar to how The Clash and The Replacements worked the genre into their music.

While Let’s Pretend (who have had an incredible past few years and emerged as one of basement punk’s leading taste-makers) have temporarily sold out of Nervosas material, the demo tape can still be purchased via Cowabunga! and the self-titled can be picked up over at No Breaks. Both tapes deserve to be secured immediately not just because of their quality but because of their scarcity; they’re great additions to any serious music collection and will undoubtedly be gone before long. These Ohio punk are showing no signs of slowing down and have positioned themselves nicely for a huge breakthrough.

Nervosas will be touring throughout 2014, including a March 1st double-header in Milwaukee that will find them playing with Appleseeds, Strange Matter, Crowdpleaser, Slut River, and two Heartbreaking Bravery favorites; Technicolor Teeth and Midwives. The early show (with Appleseeds, Strange Matter, and Crowdpleaser) will be at Center Street Free Space while the late show will take place at Quarter’s Rock N’ Roll Palace. Both are can’t-miss activities.

Listen to Nervosas self-titled full-length below.

3 Comments