Eric over at Summersteps Records has been at it over there in Dunmore, PA for the past sixteen years, putting out his own personal band projects along with a roster of friends and relations of various sorts on big vinyl and the occasional tiny single like this one from Eww Yaboo. A couple friends relocated from Brooklyn and put together the current lineup of Eww and hooked up with the Summersteps.
"Make it Fast" on the A-Side sets this sense of urgency from the minute the tape started rolling, with Nathan or Drew sounding frustrated into the mic: "I'm on?" right before they launch into an epic sounding indie, with background hints of piano, and bursts of gated swirly distortion with all kinds of counterwoven melodies, the cymbals crashing. They go from that overwhelming huge melodious pop into a bassline breakdown the next measure. Lot's of echo on the vocal, which is really great, full of hope, raukus, off kilter, on the verge of dismantling the whole sound, like the punk pop of The Balkans. Odd time signature muted guitar gives way to a wah wah solo....which might even belong on the heavier side of a tropical pop sound of something like Ski Lodge or Abe Vigoda...with their own brand of sheer optimism, and punchy single note grooves that has all the unjaded enthusiasm of dudes from the underground of PA.
The B-Side with, "So Many of the Kids", slowly fades in with a rolling tom beat and the drawn out distortion of layers of guitars. It's nice to hear a 180 like this... as much as they can go for that catchy pop on the A-Side, here it's getting heavy and a little more out of control in working within that signature huge sound. Heavily on effects, the thin vocal is a pretty serious choice, the whole thing showing off their experimental side. Here, they embrace those grungy sounds, and this hollow slapping snare track. In the age of unlimited tracks... go ahead and use them. Make it sound like a brick wall is coming for you, an old speed racer cartoon background, the lines flying all over the place, one big a crazy blur, and these guys want you to run straight into it.
The bookend studio banter taking this out says a lot about how these guys got here, one take, no edits, see you later, we gotta go open for Turbo Fruits (which they've actually done by the way).
On black big hole vinyl with handwritten download card from Summersteps Records.
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