Cassette Review: Sleeping Bag "Adams Demos" (Crossroads of America Records)

[$5 // http://www.xrarecords.com/catalog/adams-demos/]

Every so often a band comes along that you can't quite place.   Given the number of influences any band can have and the number of influences I can pull from when I hear a band, this is not really that surprising.   I'm more surprised by the fact that I don't hear bands like this more often-- the unplaceables.

Sleeping Bag is a punk band with elements of pop at its core.    That would be the best way to describe them.   It's a clean rock sound with big Weezer guitars.   There are heavier White Stripes disortion and whistling, but it remains with those Park bass lines.   The song "Knife Fight" goes back and forth like "Jaws" with ooh-ee-ooh's but can also remind me of the melody of Marcy Playground.
With some hints of Nada Surf, there is also a strong element of the Mr. T Experience + the Rentals.    One song seems to have heavy glitch drums, as in the chorus it just becomes overly distorted, and that's yet another way for Sleeping Bag to defy classification.   (Even their closest related band doesn't do that)

I can hear a little bit of Local H coming through in the melodic way not the distorted/angry way you think of Local H, but then there are also psychedelic organ keys which may or may not simply be casio.    Even at this time though some punk rock is coming through and whatever elements might present themselves I still feel as if that is what Sleeping Bag is at its core.    And that's fine by me because any band I can compare with these others but can't quite put my finger on is okay in my book.