Pitchfork, Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu, Shortback and Edsel. They passed away peacefully years ago and were reincarnated as straight-ahead rock band Obits. In the hands of Rick Froberg and Edsel’s Sohrab Habibion, it’s Hot Snakes’ sound that most notably lives on. And hype suggests good old rock ’n’ roll will live on in this band.
Following hot on the heels of their debut two-song 7” released last year by Sub Pop, I Blame You is a total rager, but perhaps not in the way that fans of Froberg’s previous bands would expect. There’s less manic intensity here and more melody, but the best aspect of this is instead of the also-very-welcome Wipers-worship of Hot Snakes, Froberg and company seem to have spent time with the records of The Gun Club.
I Blame You is mean, raw, and instrumentally tight, with splashes of surf and punk. Froberg and Habibion’s twangy guitars effectively interweave in highlights “Fake Kinkade” and “Pine On.” Here, Froberg's full-throated cries dip, jab, and prance around sparse, taut guitar lines that sound wholly nostalgic. At times, the riffs are bluesy—as heard through the walls of a garage—while other moments have a distinctly rockabilly rhythm and stretch, not to mention the Dick Dale surf-styled reverberations accenting phrases throughout. The bottom line, however, is indisputable. This is an energetic, emotionally packed ensemble delivering urgent anthems to please punk-rock gods. Whether an effigy or a reinvention really doesn’t matter. This is where the rubber meets the road; first time or hundredth, the energy, the danger is all still exciting.
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