Silversun Pickups, Carnavas
Pumpkins-lovin’ LA rockers get riffy.
A particularly cynical friend once suggested that our cultural addiction to nostalgia had grown so acute that we've begun recycling eras before they've even ended (tomorrow's trends today, indeed). That back-to-the-future dynamic goes along way in helping to appreciate the debut full-length from LA's Silversun Pickups (the quartet's name is a tribute to their native Silver Lake, the West Coast Williamsburg, and the heavily-trafficked liquor store located at the intersection of Sunset and Silver Lake Boulevards).
Better still would be to spend an uninterrupted day listening to the best bits from Smashing Pumpkins'1991 classic Gish to prep for the molten treasures found lurking throughout Carnavas. SSPU's Brian Aubert stars in the Billy Corgan role while bassist Nikki Monninger does a mean D'Arcy — their tandem hi/lo vocals on riff-happy tracks like “Melatonin” and the semi-hit “Lazy Eye” are capable of transporting you back to the halcyon days of grunge, conjuring the requisite post-punk irony, reflexive anti-star moves and brain-exploding licks.
Like Corgan before him, Aubert's lyrics don't stand up particularly well to scrutiny — his gifts are in the arrangements, where clouds of carefully-sculpted sound recall the disorienting, looped-up feedback of My Bloody Valentine. Carnavas is an admirable inaugural effort from a band still finding its own unique voice — although if SSPU's next record includes the word “Silverfuck” somewhere in the title, the jig will truly be up.
