Arriving via a wave of cosmic feedback, fuzzed-out bass, and warbly, distorted surf guitar, "Dead/Alien," the opening cut on the Seattle-based power trio's impressive New West Records debut, is a fiery amalgam of seismic Pacific Northwest garage-punk, gnarly bubblegum blues, and fiery psych-rock. That it's all delivered by a few affable miscreants just out of high school makes the whole thing that much more appealing, especially considering the fact that drummer Henry LaVallee and guitarist Grant Mullen have been friends since they were in the single digits. In addition to their jobs spitting out teeth and splitting eardrums as
Naked Giants, LaVallee, Mullen, and bassist/vocalist Gianni Aiello also moonlight as the backing band for
Car Seat Headrest, and you can occasionally hear some of the Will Toledo-fronted project's pop sensibilities bubbling up through the cracks, especially on knotty confections like "Everybody Thinks They Know (But No One Really Knows)" and "Easy Eating." Aiello's vocals toe the line between laconic/snarky and unhinged/ebullient, and that contrast makes for some compelling performances that suggest
Jonathan Richman by way of
Jack White, but really it's the sonic interplay between the three members that makes the fairly overstuffed
SLUFF sing. Outside of a couple of stylistic outliers (the bluesy, aptly named slow jam "Sole Dance II" and the largely off-the-cuff acoustic closer "Shredded Again"),
Naked Giants are possessed by the kind of nervy, semi-danceable punk fury that fueled the
Buzzcocks' "What Do I Get," the
Damned's "Neat, Neat, Neat," and some of the less bloodthirsty moments from Surfer Rosa-era
Pixies, and while they veer closer to the plucky/goofy side of the underground spectrum, they certainly wield enough power to command an impressive pit. ~ James Christopher Monger