It's too bad that the term "post-grunge" was coined to describe the likes of
Creed and
Staind, who made grunge's brooding heaviness more conventional, because later bands such as
Nü Sensae and especially
Naomi Punk take the style's basic tenets in directions that seem more influenced by grunge's spirit and are far more interesting.
Naomi Punk's second album,
The Feeling, which Couple Skate first released in April 2012 and Captured Tracks reissued later that year, explodes grunge's straightforward rhythmic underpinnings to let riffs, vocals, and drums crash or float as they may in a way that's more expressive than chaotic. And while
Naomi Punk reject overt verse/chorus/verse structures as firmly as they would that last copy of the Singles soundtrack in the used CD bin,
The Feeling doesn't want for hooks, especially on tracks like "Burned Body," which has an oddly triumphant streak to its clamor that recalls
Nirvana's "In Bloom," even if it's much more fragmented and abstract. Indeed, while shades of
Nirvana, as well as
the Wipers and
Beat Happening, often pop up in many of these songs, they feel more like passing nods to these spiritual forefathers and mothers instead of rehashing the territory they already covered. The band wrings a remarkable amount of different textures out of a relatively simple approach, from "Voodoo Trust"'s spring-loaded guitars to the watery undertow of "Trashworld" to vignettes like "CLS + Death Junket" and "Eon of Love," which add breathing room to the album's onslaughts and more abstract beauty to the proceedings. Tantalizingly indirect and strangely uplifting,
The Feeling shows that
Naomi Punk are capable of carrying on the weird spirit of the Pacific Northwest's underground in their own independent fashion. ~ Heather Phares