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The M's
Good, old-fashioned rock'n'roll will never go out of style. This I know, this I'm sure of. No matter how many flash in the pan bands come and go, certain artists will find a way to draw upon the past without sounding like clones of their heros. The M's seem to know this as well, creating perfectly executed jangly garage rock on Future Women.
Based out of Chicago, The M's build on the foundation built by heavyweights The Kinks and T-Rex, holding the torch for British Invasion comrades who have long fallen by the way side. Their songs are full of crunchy guitars and three-part vocals, a little fuzzed up, boasting a healthy dose of grit. Fans of power pop, retro pop, and rock hits of the '60s will find much to admire from a band that acts much like Sloan's younger, garage-obsessed little brother. "Plan of the Man" may be the catchiest song I've heard so far this year, and has a great dancing-in-your-bedroom-in-your-socks nature with the sassy horn breakdown at the end. The band turns up the guitars in "Trucker Speed," which rumbles and thunders down the road, building up to a delightful crescendo of classic rock: a feedback frenzy with an orchestra of strings. The toe-tapping hooks are big and fat, the guitars screech and wail, their pop songwriting chops are at full force, and the M's are pulling out all of the stops with handclaps, "whoo-hoo" yelps, and twinkling keyboards.
And the retro harmonies are top notch. I haven't anything remotely close in ages, not since the Lilys' The 3-Way (but while the M's have dog-eared copies of the indie rock production handbook they have much less of an experimental bent). Or maybe The M's are the newl Teenage Fanclub, circa Bandwasgonesque-era, but without the precociousness. Not to slight either band, as those are two of my favorite albums of all time, but whatever they're drawing from, The M's sound is classic and timeless; and they succeed without the overwrought stain of derivation or over-thinking. In this case, the whole is definitely greater than the sum of the parts.
The M's - Plan of the Man
The M's - Trucker Speed
The M's - Mansion in the Valley
The M's official site. Buy Future Women from Amazon or iTunes Music Store. The M's play Wednesday, March 15 at 10:00 p.m. at Emo's Jr.
Shadows tags:thems.
Posted by Queen of the Front Row at 03.09.06 at 12:56 AM
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