Missing Sibling’s sound is so versatile that in a live setting it could pair with punk bands and indie rock bands alike. Whether it’s in the verses or choruses, the infectious vocal harmonies and warm chords just aren’t there. There’s nothing sharp to pull the listener back for another round. Restraint doesn’t always make for a better flow to an album, and this is definitely the case here. Along with “Always” and “Color Inside the Lines,” these songs are timeless anthems that should be played on repeat.īut tunes like “If You Quit,” “I Insist,” and “Shock and Awe” pass by without making a strong impact. ![]() ![]() Simple keyboard lines, double guitar action, and driving drumbeats give the tune a strong urgency. He isn’t trying to scream his head off, but he also isn’t buried in the mix, beneath the guitars, drums, and keyboards. Gabbert’s voice blends the rasp of Guided By Voices’ Bob Pollard with the reach of Buffalo Tom’s Bill Janovitz. The single “Mary’s Rashers” has a memorable chorus –– frontman Drew Gabbert passionately proclaims, “Once you give up / It’s all over” –– matched with rich backing harmonies. Yet there is a frustrating issue with Missing Sibling’s newest release: Some songs are significantly better than others. ![]() Clocking in at 33 minutes, the 10 songs may often remind the listener of the legendary Boston power pop trio Buffalo Tom. Missing Sibling’s new self-titled debut LP was good enough to be released on the highly reputable Dallas label Idol Records (Calhoun, Jetta in the Ghost Tree, Dead Flowers). Between the party anthem “Goddamn” and the hard-charging, tiger-broke-out-of-the-cage outro on “T-Virus,” there’s plenty for balls-out rawk for fans to get behind, as long as they’re not interested in topical nuance. And while the lyrics of “Bad Dreams” will likely make women cringe and rage, it starts in this ringing jungle of bass and guitar jangle before locking into a smoky groove –– it’s hard to deny the elemental rock power of that. If you’ve ever imagined Sabbath playing soul music, that’s sorta what this sounds like. In fact, opener “Hand Cannon” rides this growly, fuzzed-out bass line into hard R&B territory, sort of like what you’d expect from UK band The Heavy. If that sounds unreasonably snarky, my response is “Hey, I’m not saying that ‘Talk Dirty to Me’ isn’t an enjoyable song.’ ” Nor am I saying that Bomb Quixote is not an enjoyable band. But, yeah, even though Bomb Quixote sounds like a distant relative of Soundgarden, the Fort Worth quartet also carries some of the rock-DNA found on the Sunset Strip circa 1987. I’m not saying that to be a jerk, but on three tracks, the band deals with the discord of romantic entanglements, and the last of these, “Bad Dreams,” tells of a hook-up: “Me and you in the public view was never something I was ever looking forward to / You’ll never be with me.”ĭoesn’t a song about blowing off some poor side girl sound like the sort of lyrical corn picked and shucked by a band like Poison? I’d be lying if I said I hated Poison (and Ratt and Mötley Crüe), and other than a certain on-the-nose/girls-are-mean-except-when-they-bang-me-and-as-long-as-they-don’t-expect-a-call-again lyrical bent, the hair-metal similarities end. To me, it’s the psych- rawk equivalent of Open Up and Say … Ahh! ![]() But also, considering that it’s a collection of songs called Netflix & Chill, a just-past-contempo buzzphrase describing transparent appeals for Friday night blowjobs on the couch, psych- rawk is not an ostensibly guileless stay-at-home activity. While it has enough familiarity with garage-rock guitar tropes (oceans of reverb, the echoing click and clunk of some hollow or semi-hollow-body guitar), it’s still a kind of ’90s alt-rena rock –– it’s like drawing a picture of Thee Oh Sees over an Edgefest flyer.
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