CASSETTE REVIEW: Ernie Coombs // Kurvi Tasch (Port Vanderlay)

http://portvanderlay.bandcamp.com/album/ernie-coombs-kurvi-tasch

            This split from Port Vanderlay contains three songs per side from each of these artists.  While the two bands share enough qualities for you to easily enjoy them together, they have enough differences to keep them apart as well.

            Ernie Coombs has a sound of indie pop rock that I feel I should be able to place instantly with something on the college radio scene but I cannot because I am really not that in tune with indie pop rock.   It’s not so much that I don’t like indie pop rock on that level, it’s just that I don’t hear a lot of the bands from that genre and many of them seem to be treading that line with popularity and so I don’t really hear them either (They probably span digital and vinyl more than cassettes, which is okay)

            Sometimes the vocals for Ernie Coombs sound like Weezer (especially on the second song) and by the third track there are some more guitar parts coming out to hint at math rock and the overall fuzz comes out a little bit as well.   It’s something along the lines of an older Polyvinyl band such as Aloha, but maybe something else I cannot place along the lines of Pinback or so.

            On the flip side, we have Kurvi Tasch, who also have some guitar note driven sounds that could be math rock, but also brings out something along the lines of punk and just general rock n roll as well.   From The Stryder to The Police, I think of Kurvi Tasch as being some brilliant cross between Piebald and The Clash, which isn’t as easy to explain as it might appear on paper (or in this case, the screen)

            The songs have energy, but they aren’t full out punk all the time.  In that way, it does remind me a little bit of that “American Idiot” era Green Day, where it isn’t full on punk but at times does resemble it.   It’s also got that edge of being rockabilly quality, so at times it brings out a band like Living End, though I wouldn’t exactly use that as a point of comparison either.   It’s just the overall punk vibe, in terms of guitar chords ala The Clash, mixed with the indie comfort of something like Piebald.

            Both of these sides are as enjoyable, as both brings the energy in its own unique way but regardless of my fumbling over how to properly compare and dictate their sounds, they just flat out rock.