Feeling antsy? Set adrift and jittery? Maybe a little depressed? Are you cramming junk food with one hand and drowning yourself with cheap beer with the other? Do you lie awake at night staring at the ceiling, attempting to will the planet's orbit into a direct collision course with the sun? Yeah, that sounds totally normal. Welcome to adulthood. There is no cure. The closest thing we got to that is rock and roll. Scientifically proven to release endorphins into your brain and make you feel less like diverting the entire human race into an atom-smasher out in space to avoid having to spend all day tomorrow filling numbers into a spreadsheet or giving a presentation to your boss, and her boss, and your office's regional manager. Blast away those anxious feels with a dose of Boston's Little Preist. Their most recent EP USA is on Fire is a dumb, ugly, fuzzy, stinking mess, much your neighbor's dog, or an early Ty Segall demo. What I like about these tracks, in particular, is their use of drum machines. Programmed beats are a seriously under-explored tool in rock n roll that can provide a song with the momentum it needs while adding an otherwordly texture. And if you use it right, it will still yield the spotlight to the guitar work, which it certainly does here. Shawnie Brando and Chris Lemy quite/LOUD, clam/chaotic guitar exchanges are really what furnishes these tracks with their delightfully combustible character. Let the chord rip on opener "Love's the Only Crown" with its Castle Face rumble riffs, and brittle, pop-psychedelia swashes, and then take the no wave, rubber-necked, blister-popper "USA is on Fire" out for a spin, and forget everything else that matters for the next ten minutes of your unfortunate existence.
