Artist: Barely Modern
Label: ZARŠ Records
Release: 2012
Length: 41:21
Rating: 4.5/5
Barely Modern are a trio from Logatec who’ve been at it for four years and already have a nice pile of experience under their belts. Among those breakthrough moments, for instance, they spent a year in the United Kingdom between 2010 and 2011, toughening up in the clubs over there and getting decent exposure and airplay on alternative radio stations across the British Isles. Promising start, no?
»We Cruise Like Tom Does« is the band’s debut and a manifesto for the happy marriage of garage-stripped snarl from the old punk rock school, which doesn’t skimp on biting energy and a well-measured dose of melodic catchiness that, in the choruses, occasionally peaks in a more modern indie pedigree. Even the first track, Lion’s Thorat, nails the band’s whole point – a »cracked riff« drenched in plenty of vocal melody, with possible nods to the pretty-boy Strokes. If we put Rapidity under the microscope and stick with comparisons about the primal approach to pretty and ugly, it’s a head-on collision of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in 2012. The impressive tune of the lead guitar phrase in Mr. Man and the vocal melody even stir up some of that old-school British sentiment of bands like The Stranglers. A track born to be a hit single. Then there’s the crazed Blue White Screen, or later Pan Pan Pan, which carry the excess of the ancient The Who school filtered through The Vines, or The Hives, the garage revival phenomenon dragged into new times. Those are just a few quick nods on an album that comes with thirteen tracks and not a second of boredom. Anyone who thinks punk is figuratively the dull corner of rock gets proven wrong by the excellent closer Feline Blues, where a mighty potent and witty slide guitar fills the gaps – »blues punk«, in other words, which could hardly sound better and wraps up the album effectively at the finish.
Barely Modern have a clear, deliberately loose character, looked after first and foremost by the guitar, which purposely doesn’t keep a tight grip on its chord shapes. Exactly what the punkish spirit in music needs. The guitar sound is bold, raw, and in the chord work it makes no difference whether a deliberate dissonance sneaks in or the chord is struck dead-on. With primal punk energy, the more it »buzzes«, the better it sounds, and Barley Modern exploit that perfectly in their expression. It feels like the guys laid the record down on tape in one piece. In other words, songs played in an »in one take« fashion. Without much prettying up, if any. The second factor creating that deliberate feeling of dissonance is the »couldn’t-give-a-fuck« vocal. Not only does it carry an enviable punk connotation, with a whiff of alcohol fumes and the power (bigger or smaller) of throaty hoarseness in its delivery, it’s also happily sunk in the production into the fabric of the guitar sound’s backdrop, which covers most of the space. What’s more, it captures the genuine feeling that guitar and vocal fit each other like a glove, like arse and trousers. They’re generated by the same person, after all – the fully immersed and dedicated frontman Žiga Petkovšek. The vocal sounds thoroughly English, even though it comes out of the mouth of a Slovenian country boy.
The vocal gives the impression of uneven, wavering singing. It would rather »burst« in a verse, or fade out thinner, closer to a »shot-past note«, and in the next repetition the same verse is sung to the same melody but with a different emotion. Barely Modern achieve their own kind of harmony precisely through a generous helping of disharmony.
The songs are mostly upbeat, meaning that while they’re blazing away, the riff core of each song’s frame holds major keys and positive melodic hooks. So, a party-time atmosphere, which, despite the distinctly garage-ified punk rock component, proves that Barely Modern grew up in the bosom of safe, well-provided households. But there’s something about them. You never get sick of the album. There isn’t a single second of a miss on it, and all we hear is full-blooded rock conviction, showing that these guys, in their untamed blazing, made of the right stuff, have found their rightful place in the rock universe.
Barely Modern give the impression of exceptional focus in whatever they take on. The trio works as a compact, unified whole! Heads on the same wavelength. That’s why every single moment of the album »We Cruise Like Tom Does« feels very real and authentic!
Barely Modern are an excellent pick to pair with similarly deliberately loose but genuinely immersed rock ‘n’ roll »garage-ified« types like Dandelion Children. Just like the name says. Barely modern. So, something old, poured out and re-brewed into a synonym for new times, through the prism of a new generation’s understanding of rock n’ roll. Potent, arrogant, sarcastic and, above all, »alternative full-on jagged«! This is one of the better releases in alternative rock in Slovenia this year! It’ll be interesting to watch how far Barely Modern go from here.
Lineup
Žiga Petkovšek – vocals, guitar
Miha Kononenko – bass guitar
Jure Vihar – drums
Production
Barely Modern & Jure Vlahovič
Tracklist
1. Lion’s Throat
2. Things In My Pocket
3. Rapidity
4. Blue White Screen
5. I See Evil Television
6. You Look At Me I Look At You
7. Pain Is The Disco
8. Mr. Man
9. Minor Vacation
10. Bubba Lemon
11. Pan Pan Pan
12. They Don’t Say Hello
13. Feline Blues
