Green / Blue is comprised of vocalist and guitarist Jim Blaha formerly of Blind Shake, bassist Hideo Takahashi of Birthday Suits, and guitarists and vocalist Annie Sparrows and drummer Danny Henry formerly of the Soviettes (Ha! There was a point to the preamble after all!). The group came together after Sparrows bought a collage portrait off Blaha and the exchange kicked off a conversation about their current musical projects, leading Blaha to share some rough cut demos he'd tracked. Since the demise of Blind Shake, Blaha had been diving into the back catalog of The Clean and Guided by Voices and coming up with his own renditions of that classic '80s indie rock sound. After listening to some partial tracks on Blaha's phone, Sparrows expressed interest in joining the project and the pieced fell into place from there.
If you were expecting the savage edges and brash teen angst of any of the bandmembers' previous projects to surface on the Green / Blue's debut, you'll be sorely disappointed. Instead, what you'll find is a focused exhibition of lightly post-punk-punched-up, lo-fi resign coated, plaintively psychedelic garage rock reminiscent of a faultlessly aged and refined Times New Viking. Troubled bass growls undergird most of the mixes like the intractable passage of time, grounding the tracks in a temporal pond of lightly acidic existential panic, while the wine of wiry, high-tuned guitars arch above like sepia-toned, hotchpotches of half-recalled memories transformed into a pure electrical discharge. Sparrow and Blaha's vocals combine with a melancholy urgency that churns up feelings of loss and hope in a medley of charming ambivalence to one's future and resolve to forget one's past. "With That Face" bobs into view with a tense, bald-rubber groove, sharp road-spike leads, and gritting, teeth-baring harmonies that demonstrate the venom that can leak from a "Minnesota Nice" smile. "Return" ratchets up the temperature to make you sweat with white-hot, charcoal fire, Ty Seagel-esque grooves. Later, "Fine a New World" dials up the fuzz and pours on the honey for an enticing Jesus and Mary Jane cush-crush, while "Shards" feels like Royal Trux relaxing into a low-key mean-streak.
There was a time when indie music blogs would have lined up to do a feature on a band with Green / Blues. The group effortlessly pulls off that straightforward, unpretentious, highly melodic brand of indie garage rock that only a few years back would have had those simps at Pitchfork eating out of the band's hands. Now Pitchfork is too busy running glowing stories on Soundcloud snitches and obvious industry plants to bother with a rock band like Green / Blue. Let the taste(less)-makers of yesteryear chase ad dollars and click-through schemes. Real indie blogs will always cover real indie music. To that point, if you miss the days when you could discover your new favorite band by stumbling into an afternoon rock show at your local coffee shop, then Green / Blue is the kind of band you need in your life right now.
Get a copy of Green / Blue's self-titled debut from Slovenly here.
