Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Cassette Review: Trust Fund / Joanna Gruesome split (Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records)


[$5 // Edition of 100 // http://hhbtm.com/item.php?item_id=445&category_id=6]

One of my first thoughts about this cassette is that I already know and enjoy the music of Joanna Gruesome (as I reviewed their album "Weird Sister" via Spotify once upon a time) and as such I know I am at least going to like half of this split going into it.    Funny how we start with the Trust Fund side every time though, to kind of get it all right out there of what this is going to sound like on the parts you don't know.

I feel like I should have heard of Trust Fund before but I haven't.   A quick search of Bandcamp shows me that they're from the UK and have an EP outside of this split so I can look into that as well I suppose.    The sound of Trust Fund is a familiar one and I feel as if I should be able to place it rather easily but I can't.   It seems like it has a more mainstream counterpart I'm overlooking, like Best Coast or something but I only ever listened to Best Coast to review them and haven't ever really liked them and not just because someone in an opening band i knew once got kicked out of a show for saying, "Best Coast? More like Worst Coast!"

Trust Fund is melodic punk rock pop and I have equation set down as being at 40% punk, 40% rock and 20% pop.   You can do the math on that yourself, but that means that both other portions are twice the pop offering of it.    There are dual vocals and on the second song the fuzzy sound of Weezer-like guitars kicks in well.   It could be from The Replacements heyday yet at the third and final song they turn into this sort of dreamy, tropical band with a mixture of Belle & Sebastian.

As much as I enjoy Trust Fund, I still enjoy Joanna Gruesome more if only because this isn't my time hearing them.   These songs continue the tradition of fine music I have written about previously, always walking that line between Veruca Salt and "Kerplunk" era Green Day.  (At least with those walking sort of guitar riffs)    There are times when these songs remind me of Nada Surf and then at other times I have them marked down between garage, rock, twee and The Thermals.

So really here, you're getting three songs from each band and if you've been keeping up with me (as you should) you'd already be into Joanna Gruesome so you'd want this just for their side.   However, consider this your official introduction to Trust Fund an added bonus that will leave you maybe as happy as I am with them.






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