Brakes, Touchdown
Two indie rockers have a blast mixing punk and twang
When they first emerged, Brakes — now known in America as brakesbrakesbrakes — seemed like they were out to make fun of rock even as they created it. Their debut, Give Blood, gnashed out tunes like "Heard About Your Band" (not much of it good, mind) and "All Night Disco Party" with just the right mixture of sneer and glee, but their version of Johnny and June Cash's "Jackson" wasn't a joke. The Beatific Visions was less twangy and even funnier, thanks to cuts like the spleen-venting "Porcupine or Pineapple."
There are times on Touchdown when brakesbrakesbrakes 'singer Eamon Hamilton is too clever for his own good: it happens with smart, wordy guys who front rock bands. "Don't Take Me to Space (Man)" contains exactly the hoary wordplay you think it does. But Touchdown is also proof that Hamilton, guitar-drummer siblings Thomas and Alex White, and bassist Marc Beatty do, continue to mix punk and twang naturalistically. They score an easy victory with their snappy cover of American indie rocker Charles Douglas '"Ancient Mysteries." And the sob-to-a-gnarl "Why Tell the Truth (When It's Easier to Lie)," opens with a Hamilton verse that George Jones would raise a glass to: "I'm gonna tell you why it is that I drink my days away/It's 'cause the beer helps the cigarettes go down/And I'm gonna tell you why it is that I cry my nights away/It's 'cause the tears help the memories come out."
