It's hard to talk about this Seattle trio of noisemakers without mentioning Nirvana. Both sonically and geographically, the specter of the grunge icons hovers over So Pitted, from their love of ugly-but-catchy guitar lines to their no-aesthetic aesthetic. When those guitars hit, 30 seconds into "No Nuke Country," you can feel the phantom land.
neo album gives a sense of late '80s/early '90s grunge history folding in on itself. Tracks like "cat scratch" and "feed me" make it clear the band aren't following the classic-rock-filtered-through-outsider-punk path of that era, but may be using that generation's end point as their beginning. The mechanics are certainly different, what with a drummer (Liam Downey) and guitarist (Nathan Rodriguez) that occasionally switch instruments and sing, and a second guitarist (Jeannine Koewler) who plays through a bass amp for a syrupy yet satisfying low end.
Ultimately, what So Pitted have — besides a name derived from a YouTube video of a surfer waxing poetic about a perfect wave — is the discovery of a rad tunnel of sound where noise and melody can high five each other with impunity. And to bring it back to history: Imagine a world where Steve Albini had recorded Bleach instead of In Utero. That's a good alternate reality to inhabit in 2016.
(Sub Pop)neo album gives a sense of late '80s/early '90s grunge history folding in on itself. Tracks like "cat scratch" and "feed me" make it clear the band aren't following the classic-rock-filtered-through-outsider-punk path of that era, but may be using that generation's end point as their beginning. The mechanics are certainly different, what with a drummer (Liam Downey) and guitarist (Nathan Rodriguez) that occasionally switch instruments and sing, and a second guitarist (Jeannine Koewler) who plays through a bass amp for a syrupy yet satisfying low end.
Ultimately, what So Pitted have — besides a name derived from a YouTube video of a surfer waxing poetic about a perfect wave — is the discovery of a rad tunnel of sound where noise and melody can high five each other with impunity. And to bring it back to history: Imagine a world where Steve Albini had recorded Bleach instead of In Utero. That's a good alternate reality to inhabit in 2016.
