VIOLENT CHANGE 'VC3' 45RPM 12" (MELTERS)

San Francisco's Violent Change have the name of an 1980s HC band but they're really a 2010s power pop band, albeit a distinctly sludgy/druggy/foggy one. Nicked riffs and hooks thrust and parry from grounds both under and over, from the British Invasion and beyond... the hook buried deepest in my brain so far is the title hook for the song "Television," and while Television (the band) is probably well-liked by Violent Change, this track sounds more like The Shoes at their most feathery/ratty/home-recorded. The forlorn and distorted tone of the vocals is in itself a hook, one that I can't shake, and the same could be said about various dreamlike guitar tones that the band achieves and filters through what seems like a distinctly soulful cassette 4-track setup. I can't help but think of 10 years ago when labels like Siltbreeze were releasing records by Eat Skull and Sic Alps right and left -- this might just be a brand new Pacific Northwest shitgaze record! -- although Violent Change are more on the Bee Thousand end of things, and sometimes (like on "Potemkin" and "The Way") even sound like they're going straight back to The Bachs. Anyway, I'm just now finding out about this band (even though this would appear to be their third release), thanks to hearing the great track "Colors of the Pine" on John Allen's WFMU show, then the rest of the record on Bandcamp, where I quickly ordered a vinyl copy while drunk. ($14 looks really cheap with beer-goggles on, you totally ignore that $4 shipping cost. But, now that I've gotten the record and listened to it like 12 times already, I can soberly state that $18 is a bargain as well.)

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