[$8 // Edition of 100 // https://mirroruniversetapes.bandcamp.com/album/solid-gold-cowboys]
Even though I may not be able to pinpoint exactly where the music of Unlikely Friends falls on the genre scale, I am at least happy to report that it is rock. With the concept for this cassette being "Solid Gold Cowboys" (which includes the art work) I was expecting this to have that Limbeck/Lucero/Against Me! quality where it might be rock or punk on some levels but then mix those country elements in as well. This does not do that though and I am completely fine with that.
In some ways this reminds me of The Stereo or the Mr. T Experience. It's that pop rock sound, like The Thermals meets Ultimate Fakebook. With hints of David Bowie coming through this would be somewhere between the soundtrack to "Dazed and Confused" and the soundtrack to "Angus", which is quite a unique spot to fall on but it just works oh so well here. There is some fuzz, big guitar chords and Showoff bass lines as well.
As we get to the songs on Side B though it becomes a bit more dreamy, complete with piano notes. The first song on Side B sings about how someone ate all of the pizza except for the crusts and being that my wife does practice this as well (Not eating all the pizza because we share, but she doesn't eat the crusts) it was somewhat special to me.
On an interesting and somewhat related note, you know how Pop Tarts only have about 90% or so of their surface covered and then there is just that plain part that could be considered the crust? Yeah, my three year old eats around that too, kind of eating all the Pop Tarts and not their crusts.
The presence of a harmonica helps to bring out a folk sound like Belle & Sebastian or something from the "Juno" soundtrack (Here we go, bouncing around soundtracks again) and then the drums really take hold with patterened vocal loops and still there are those hints of it being classic rock.
In another time and in another place, I might be able to say that this sounds like a particular band but I sometimes also feel as if I don't give myself enough credit for the amount of music that I listen to. Whenever I think that "There is probably some college rock radio band that sounds like this but I just don't listen to them", I'm never sure who I'm referring to exactly because I do tend to listen to most of those bands I just don't always like them.
To say Unlikely Friends is carving their own rock path would be an understatement. I've explained the dynamics of rock before (In short- there are so many rock influences to pull from that it is far more likely that good rock bands should not have a point of comparison because they can simply draw from too many sources) and now I may find myself comparing bands to Unlikely Friends but if not I will still enjoy this one and play it loudly. I hope you do as well.
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