Pop

Exploding Head
A Place To Bury Strangers
Mute, 2008
3 stars

You know in those old Hanna-Barbara cartoons where a menacing, wolf-like shadow is actually just a harmless mouse with some neat tricks? Well, these guys are the mouse. Their choice of band name, album name and song titles isn’t exactly asking for ‘iTunes single of the week’ status, but for APTBS that’s clearly the point. This is unapologetic, mean pop music; it’s noisy, abrasive and loud almost to the point of stupid, but behind the bared fangs it’s really just straightforward guitar rock. Rock, that is, for your 2009-vintage “let down by the world” twenty-something city-dwelling male, disaffected enough not to have brushed his teeth but self-aware enough to have scoured half of town for the perfect pair of skinny black jeans. These guys came out with the recent shoegaze revival, their self-titled debut putting them at the darkest, loudest end of the trend. With Exploding Head, they haven’t really changed their formula -- dense walls of guitar noise (courtesy of the band’s home-made effects pedals) conceal stinging punk-rock riffs, distorted, rapid-fire percussion and growled vocals. It’s not for everyone, but those who don’t mind digging through layers of distorted fuzz for a tune will find something to like in this record.

Artwork: C-
Creepy.