I mentioned last week how much I love indie pop. The discipline it takes to craft a song, the clean production, the attention to detail all appeal to me. I often marvel at a pretty, pristine pop song. But sometimes... ...sometimes you want to get your hands a little dirty. Sometimes you want to get down in it. For those times, you've got bands like The Off White.
The Off White are a Long Beach Island foursome whose debut full-length, Don't Take Kindly, came out about a week and a half ago on Asbury's Little Dickman records. It's a record that sounds like it's coming to you from another time. And I'm not saying that because all the songs have a retro vibe to them, which they do. I also mean that in kind of a physical way. The songs on Don't Take Kindly, buried in dirt and grit and lo-finess, sound like they're coming through from some distant dimension. It's like you're receiving a ghostly transmission from some dark place.
Opener "You Never Listen to Me" features some barely discernible vocals buried behind walls of guitars and layers of reverb. The refrain of "You never listen" gets twisted and contorted among a barrage of "no no nos" from the rest of the band. "Karma, Bitch!" starts out-fast paced with some piercing guitars but slows down for the sneered group chorus of "aaah aaahs." Back in February, I said that single "Rumors" was a "dark and dirty antidote to all things pristine and slickly produced;" and by the time that song comes around here, there's no doubt about that statement holding true for the whole record.
The band slows and quiets things down a bit at times, adding some country twang on "Hiding Song" and giving "The Itch" a foreboding, repeated riff and some strategic stops before letting the tension slowly build again. "Bedroom Floor" is The Off White's version of a love song, quiet and twangy again, but darkened up just a bit with the line, "girl you know I'm crazy, but I still want you for my baby."
So, yeah. You've got your music that comes in a nice package. Often times, it took a lot of blood, sweat, and work to get it to you in that form that hits you just the right way and gets you singing along. And then you have your music from bands like The Off White where the blood and sweat are still right there for you to see and feel. All of the edges and grit and grime scrape at you and get you to feel something in a totally different way.
They both work for me. Depends on what kind of mood I'm in. Don't Take Kindly is there for those times when you really want to get down in it.
Don't Take Kindly is available on CD (now) and cassette (this week) from Little Dickman Records. It's streaming for a limited time from Little Dickman's Soundcloud.
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