Nice International

From NY, these guys offer their third album recorded with 4-track, and they do some pretty nice things with such little means. Stylistically the album jumps around with each song, but in general the music is down tempo indie rock with clear references to Sonic Youth, Sebadoh, My Bloody Valentine, Pinback. The references are often quite literal, but still the band holds together a coherent sound that’s worth listening to. My main complaint is that the vocals are too sweet and smooth. A decent record though. 4, 1, 6, 9, 3.

1. down tempo drum machine + nice drone + sad vocals
2. very sea and cake, but I can’t stand the long-winded melody.
3. cute pop melody. catchy and sweet.
4. nice instrumental, chilled, droning bass, SY guitar melodies.
5. recorded conversation with some guitar, bass, and screaming guitar
6. rockin’ with a sebadoh chorus that I haven’t heard in a while.
7. slow, quiet beat. thick distorted guitars. sweet vocals, too sweet.
8. slow, thick fuzz guitars. trying for my bloody valentine. spoken vox
9. harmonized guitars a la pinback, then nice rockin’ distortion.
10. small choir with nice guitar background, but weirds me out.