Internal Logic

Grass Widow
Internal Logic
6-1-2012
Hervey Okkles

It's more or less keeping with the pattern Grass Widow has set up with their last few (fantastic) albums. Three-piece SF girl-group. Surfy, sunny, skeletal arrangements meet beautiful three-part harmonies. Spacey and catchy and avant-garde and twee and all sorts of things. It fits a formula, and tends to run together. But it's a sound worth hearing. I love this band. Everything is mid/uptempo, spooky and beautiful and wonderful and unearthly. No FCCs.

RIYL: Talulah Gosh, The Raincoats, Dum Dum Girls, The Slits, Razika, really anything from meowcore or the sweet end of post-punk...

1. (3:17) *** Quiet opening... nearly twenty seconds of near-silence. A good one, though. DJ should talk over the intro? Spacey, questioning, with some bleeps and bloops. Thick wedges of surf strumming pop in and out. Sudden ending.
2. (3:02) Thrashy bright-color punk guitar intro. Acrid unbalanced vocals. Harsh, spooky. A bit severe.
3. (2:04) ** Plunking guitar and bass. Vocals are extra sweet. Instruments are more theoretical, surfy instrumentals as processed through a thresher.
4. (3:08) * Ronettes drums opening. Slower paced, more ballad-y, close-harmony vocals. Syrupy-sweet bittersweet. But slow. "Ah ah ah" chorus. More angelic than the rest.
5. (2:37) ******** HOOKY AS HELL. Bubblegum-punk guitar, leads to waves of harmonies layered in layers, some minor and some major.... Tough to describe. If you like twee, this is track of the year. Driving, driving, driving. Catchy. (But caveats-- bubblegummy. The rest of the album isn't quite THIS sweet.)
6. (1:37) Disposable classical-guitar instrumental. Okay in album, but pointless on KZSU. Skip.
7. (3:12) * Harsh monster-movie guitar noise to start... the harmonies are still there, with a "la la la la," but there's something sinister and eerie about this track. "All in your head"
8. (3:04) * Clicky-clicky-clicky opening, into soft vocals on top, insistent drums. Western-ish strumming halfway through, minor chaotic breakdown of form. Freeform, pretty. 9. (2:37) Slowly winding bass intro, into crash... Pipey. 10. (3:34) * Crunchier guitars to open, fast and running, breaking waves of harmony.