If someone told me that they were going to release a movie on 16 mm to play at home because they were feeling nostalgic I'd probably think they were an idiot...unless of course it was a horror movie. I guess that's because horror movies lend themselves to that sort of creepy, scratchy look and it would add to the atmosphere of the movie. So when I heard that Boston's Girlfriends were releasing a tape I just thought, 'Oh, how indie rock of them - how vintage - how hard do they have to try?' Then I heard it. Then I understood.
Girlfriends is playing basement rock with a punk feel, actually, their music is way more punk rock than the stuff that gets called that these days. Oh, and they actually recorded the album in a basement in Belmont, MA.
I could have probably been tricked into believing that the album had actually been recorded in the late 70's and I would have thought it to be pretty sweet, I'm even more impressed that it was done now and doesn't just sound like a shoddy imitation. Clocking in at just over fourteen minutes, this five song cassette (which, unfortunately I only was able to listen to from an online download) is ten songs too short if you ask me. I enjoyed every song, especially "I Was Here But I Disappear" and "Good To Be True" - and not just musically, I even got a kick out of some of the lyrics. I do wish they weren't labeled 'trashpop' by the label which put out this limited edition of 100 cassettes (Floating Garbage Continent) but record labels do love writing wacky stuff and I would hate to blame the band for that.
All in all, above average, fun, too short, totally worth pulling out your dusty walkman for.
