Yuck- Yuck (Fat Possum- 2011)
~by Gabe McBride
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While there has certainly been no shortage of foreign acts carrying the indie/guitar/rock/pop banner in the last decade (Sweden’s Like Honey, England’s Spraydog, and NZ’s Surf City are my personal favorites), there has not been a whole lot of precious blog beachfront property in the hipsterverse reserved for these bands, or maybe I should say, these “types” of bands. Silvesun Pickups are the most obvious exception, but the backlash against them started seemingly within days of the release of Carnavas (2006), and of course, they made an even bigger mistake by becoming popular selling out. That said, it has been pretty cool seeing the recent buzz around Yuck.
I have to admit that it’s a little weird hearing 20 year olds playing music I was discovering when I was 20 years old, but man, they just do it so well. Yuck layer guitars on guitars on guitars, do the loud, soft, loud thing *very* well and toss out big, rip-snortin’, hooks with little apparent effort. It’s not all J Mascis shredding up in here, though (Yuck I mean). The band reference the big boys (Sonic Youth, Dino Jr.) when they rock, and the best boys (Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet) when they mellow things out .
Part of the reason Yuck haven’t been thrown under the bus (yet) is because of this. Semi-nude Aubrey Plaza lookalikes aside, the other, better reason, is they just rock like they mean it, even if, somewhere in the band’s collective soul, they are just maybe having a little bit of a go, playing music for old farts like me. I can confidently say Yuck will be in my regular rotation for the rest of the year. But hey, sometimes the answer is just “more guitars”.
For Fans of: The Posies, Sisters
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