Blood On The Wall: Awesomer : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Don't let Blood on the Wall's name fool you: This isn't a Florida death-metal band but a smart indie-rock three-piece doing its best to fill the void that Sonic Youth left when they stopped bringing the heavy guitar fuzz a decade or so ago. This Brooklyn band's second album is a treasure trove of stylish, effects-laden guitar tracks with deceptively primitive bass lines, frenetic drums and hazy stoner lyrics. Singing duties are covered by the brother-sister combo of Brad and Courtney Shanks, and you can certainly hear the influence of Thurston Moore's boyish screech and Kim Gordon's burned-out drawl. But these kids are no Sonic Youth tribute band. On the narcotic punk-rock torch song "Stoner Jam," Ms. Shanks sounds like a precocious kid impersonating a tough-as-nails vixen, which may not be the desired effect but is nevertheless charming. "You Are a Mess" is a poppy, grunge-ish joy ride. The absurdist dance rocker "Right to Lite Tonight," on which a playfully paranoid brother Shanks sings, "I get the feeling somebody's watching/I know who they are but I'll never tell," is a powerful combo of low-fi austerity and psychedelic reverb. A few lyrical snafus wind up making tracks like "Mary Susan" sound sloppy rather than postmodern ("Mary Susan, her eyes have become kites/Because she's been looking too long into the light"). But Awesomer is undoubtedly awesomer than most.