Needles//Pins

Musical proficiency is never a bad thing. However, when it comes to garage rock, the ability to string together chords and whip off succinct, fiery solos can detract from the overall goal. With Vancouver, BC's Needles//Pins, that isn't a problem. While they are a spirited power trio delivering a strange union of Gruesomes-esque trash and the kind of poppy tunes a novice Pixies fan would pen, their abilities hardly extend beyond stringing together a few chords and keeping things as close to in-tune as possible. That, however, is exactly what makes First World Problems a fun, light-hearted experience. With its absolute lack of pretension or interest in anything other than having some bare-bones fun with almost-distorted guitar, simplistic bass and a no-frills drummer, the album is a solid 18 minutes of great intentions backed by unavoidable modesty. Fun and basic, loose yet buoyant, First World Problems proves that sometimes inexperience yields the best results.