Father, Son, Holy Girls

Im not entirely sure how I feel about Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Girls' (AKA Christopher Owens) sophomore release. A lot was made of Owens's past, his childhood connections to the insidious Children Of God cult, his consequent emancipation and induction into the world of music and the result being his first foray into full-length recording, Album, being an idiot-savant's guide to the world of garage rock. It was infused with wide-eyed adoration and naivety, and as such had an infectious quality fused to the very core of it, making it an album very hard to resist.

Father, Son, Holy Ghost still has that sense of wonder about it, although it seems Owens has delved further back into the Buddy Holly era of rock. Nothing wrong with that at all. Yet this sense of backwards nostalgia doesn't always glue for me - opener 'Honey Bunny' comes across a little hokey, whilst 'Just A Song' is a mixture of Elliott Smith and 80s AM easy listening that errs on the wrong side of treacly sweet and 'Love Life' is a rip off of McCartney that is a little hard to swallow. That said, there are some crackers here - the shoegazy 'Alex', the classic rock rumble of 'Die' and 'Vomit', or the languid meandering of 'Forgiveness'.

My attraction to this album, and Girls, ebbs and flows. So it's a strange one, for he is shamelessly the myna bird of contemporary music, and in a day and age when every second band is retro or revivalist, the line between theft and reinvention is increasingly blurred. Still, it's worth having a listen, maybe picking the tracks that draw you in, and casting the rest aside - it's that kind of long-player.


Father, Son, Holy Ghost is out now on True Panther.

Girls - Vomit
Girls - Die

The Clouds will leave you for Nothing

Dylan Baldi is a vivacious young fellow. Under his umbrella guise of Cloud Nothings, Baldi had pumped out many releases and scraps of material that has flooded the world with his brand of bedroom bliss punk pop. We mentioned his split with Kevin Greenspon on Bridgetown Records last week. As I stated there, Baldi had laid his claim that his sound was going to be cleaner from here on out, and although his latest release, the Leave You Forever Ep (out through True Panther Sounds) is steeped in the lofi sentimentality that many of his ilk have fashioned their sound with, the briskness and lack of unwarranted fuzz has actually opened the songs to a new level of saccharine beauty and fun that were thus far buried and left to find with a heavy duty metal detector. There are few that are within shouting distance of writing such great pop songs - Beach Fossils maybe? - and the fact that Baldi is only 19 and is constantly pushing the boundaries of his vision is inimitably exciting. (Oh, and if you havent already, check out his album of last year Turning On - its damned fine).

Cloud Nothings are, after playing a brace of US shows supporting the likes of Wet Hair, Prince Rama and the aforementioned Beach Fossils, will hit the UK with local outfit Veronica Falls, taking Electrowerkz by storm on the 5th of November. A good way to celebrate blowing up Parliament, no? Also, Electrowerkz is in Angel, a warehouse club, so a strange venue choice, which should make it all the more interesting and fun. Then after all THAT, they open for Les Savy Fav across the European continent. Yep, that Baldi character is one vivacious fellow. And its about time that people started bopping along to his tune.

Cloud Nothings - Leave You Forever

Cloud Nothings - Weird Son