the LUNA music word 'em up: BIG TROUBLES - Worry (Olde English Spelling Bee)

One of the more subtle influences in the whole lo-fi revival of the last few years has been shoegaze - that genre of early 90s music characterized by walls of distortion built from heavily textured guitars effects. Yet for most lo-fi bands shoegaze's gauzy sound was only a single, and often small, element in their sound. Sure Wavves and Vivian Girls played behind walls of distortion, but both bands were far more indebted to punk and garage rock than My Bloody Valentine. Now comes New Jersey's Big Trouble wearing shoegaze on their sleeve (btw, what is the water in New Jersey all of a sudden that it keeps producing so many great bands?). I would hesitate to call them a proper shoegaze band, because they are as equally indebted to C86 and lo-fi, making for a near perfect mix of sonics, but there is a very strong element of Jesus and Mary Chain's "Psychocandy" and MBV at work on their debut album "Worry."

Of course all of these references mean that inevitably Big Troubles are not fostering the most original sound ever, but even if "Worry" is composed of recycled pieces of early 90s indie rock they are the best pieces. Tracks like "Modern Intimacy" sounds like "Slanted & Enchanted"-era Pavement covering My Bloody Valentine. If that description doesn't at least make you want to soak in the band's retro mash-up of lo-fi and shoegaze, then I don't really think I wanna know you.

What makes the album a keeper is the amount of diversity between tracks. Some songs like "Freudian Slips" and "Bite Yr Tongue" are pure C93 pop sweetness, others like "Slouch" and "Georgia" sound like long lost Lush b-sides. Then there are the rockers like "Drastic and Difficult" that go into the red only to be followed by the mellow and beautiful haze of numbers like "Boomerang," one of the album's best tracks, even if it does come close to sounding suspiciously like Jesus and the Mary Chain's "Darklands." And, I haven't even mentioned yet how these guys totally have Pavement's "Watery, Domestic"-period down to a tee on other tracks, but they do.

Usually when a reviewer falls back on comparisons like I have throughout this review it is indicative of lazy writing. Sometimes music is hard to describe for writers, so they simply say "this sounds like xyz," even when it really doesn't (I wish I had a dollar for every stupid review that compared countless drone, post-rock and metal bands throughout the aughts to Godspeed You Black Emperor, if I did I would be writing this to you from a sandy beach near the equator). I promise you that isn't the case here. It is just that "Worry" truly does sound like a whole lot of other bands, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. That doesn't detract from or necessarily make this album superfluous. It isn't like this is a remake of "Loveless," and it isn't like Pavement made a shoegaze record, so at least Big Troubles have excellent taste in music going for them, as well as an uncanny ability to combine styles into a seamless whole. Besides, a majority of indie's brightest lights over the past few years are guilty of pillaging the past, why should Big Troubles feel any shame in doing it and doing it well?

"Modern Intimacy"

BIG TROUBLES "MODERN INTIMACY" from OLDE ENGLISH SPELLING BEE on Vimeo.