Girls Names

Possessing a name and sound that are bordering on banal in 2011, Belfast's Girls Names have had a remarkable run since founding members Cathal Cully and Neil Brogan literally threw together the band in order to play a gig in 2009. Last year alone they released a split cassette with Heavy Hawaii, a split seven-inch with Brilliant Colors on Slumberland, a mini-album on Tough Love and a twelve-inch on Captured Tracks. Their debut album, Dead to Me, capitalizes on that hard work. By dissecting the band's "disposable noise pop," as they call it, you'll find the Jesus & Mary Chain's surfin' garage rock, Black Tambourine's jaunty distorto-jangle and Beat Happening's amateurish disposition. But therein lies the problem: like the majority of the new indie pop acts out there peddling a similar throwback sound, Girls Names aren't one of the standouts. Sure, it's all kosher in their circle, and tracks like "No More Words" and "Bury Me" are mixtape-worthy, but unlike bands like the Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Wild Nothing that have developed their niches, Girls Names just get lost in the crowd.