New Jersey folk-punk duo
the Front Bottoms follow up their 2013
Talon of the Hawk LP (a reference to stoic Twin Peaks character Deputy Hawk) with a six-song EP of previously unrecorded fan favorites titled
Rose (a reference to drummer
Mat Uychich's grandmother Rosemary). It is the inaugural release of what is proposed to be a set of EPs all named after the bandmembers' grandmothers, and strange as that may seem, this is not the first time a grandma has gotten her due on a
Front Bottoms release. Their self-released second album, My Grandma vs. Pneumonia, plus a whole lot of touring eventually led to the band signing a deal with Bar None Records in 2011. When they're not watching Twin Peaks or paying tribute to their grandmas,
Brian Sella and
Mat Uychich are writing shambly, idiosyncratic pop songs like "Flying Model Rockets" and "Awkward Conversations," which are sung in an affected, pushy manner over aggressively strummed acoustic guitars and thumping drums. There's a somewhat comic, ironic tone to
Sella's delivery that owes as much to SoCal pop punk as it does to D.I.Y. heroes like
the Mountain Goats and
Neutral Milk Hotel. While his lightly surrealist lyrical rants about the minutiae of his world are an acquired taste, there is a charm to these songs, many of which have become oft-requested at gigs or shown up in bootlegged YouTube form yet never received a proper release. You can imagine "Lipstick Covered Magnet" broadcasting its hearty, ragged pulse out over a sweaty crowd as fans get swept up in its chorus of "I'm gonna get on my knees, would you kick me in the face please." Elsewhere, the spunky rhythm of "Be Nice to Me" feels like it could be a latter day descendent of
the Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl." ~ Timothy Monger