Cassette Review: Avocado Blood "Songs" (Condina Records)

$5 //
https://condinarecords.bandcamp.com/album/songs //

My immediate though when I first listen to Avocado Blood is that this sounds like some combination of Nirvana and The Beatles.   This interests me because I like both bands and so trying to see how the sound plays out is really one of the main reasons why I listen to music.   Trying to have elements of Nirvana and The Beatles mesh together though could lead to disaster so luckily for us that is simply not the case here.

On the first song and even a little on the second the vocals remind me of Bob Dylan but by the third I'm hearing EFS.   The music is a bit trippy and I can really only think of Campground Effect as another artist to compare this with on the first song and even that is a bit obscure.   The second song opens with more of a surf feel and then it goes into some combination of Modest Mouse ("Float On") with little hints of Gotye. 

"Colors", which is the third and final song on Side A, opens with these laser whirrs and then goes into some cross between Dynamite Hack and Marcy Playground, which just sounds wonderful.   There is this dreamy quality with static skips in an instrumental fashion to close out the side.   More of these static skips come through with the drum beats to open Side B.   It's dreamy now, like a waltz and then for a second there the cassette kind of skips.   It does it again, so I know they're doing it on purpose, but it's a nice tape manipulation sound.

"Blood Moon" is just belted out like a powerful ballad.  It has Local H undertones to it and, yes, it continues to glitch into these wavy lasers which want to send us into straight into space.   This takes us into the last track which begins like an upbeat video game.  I'm not sure why, but right away I want to sing along with it to the tune of that "Cool for the summer" song.  Ugh.   Why do I ever listen to the radio?  This is still rather trippy- perhaps the most of any of these songs- and the vocals seem to combine Dylan, EFS and Local H somehow all at once.    But this hook... This hook is what makes me love music.

Growing up in the 1980's and 1990's I was into some weird music.  It's funny to think even about someone who was born in 1990 or after because I'd have a ten year head start on them.   All these bands came out with and after Nirvana and they were good.  I mean, some of them sucked, sure, but I'd rather listen to the entire CD by Marcy Playground that had "Sex & Candy" on it than the majority of new songs on the radio today.   Avocado Blood reminds me of that album I bought in the 1990's that not everyone else knew about then and maybe forgot about now but the quality is still there and undeniable.