Consisting of savvy instrument switchers and microphone sharers Ariella Stok, Bill the Drummer, and Jimmy Jumpjump, Brooklyn’s Sloppy Heads specialize in the sort of pop-edged, psych-tinged, ragged-fidelity indie rock that flourished three decades back, notably on labels like Shrimper, an enterprise still extant and indeed responsible for Sometimes Just One Second, Sloppy Heads’ second full-length available August 18 on limited cassette and CD. Getting some help from James McNew (Yo La Tengo) and Gary Olson (Ladybug Transistor), they’ve put together a total winner of a release. It’s a long one that stays fresh the whole way through and has sweet cover art by Gary Panter.
I don’t want to suggest that Sloppy Heads are a total throwback to the indie rock ’90s. But after due consideration, I must admit that if Sometimes Just One Second’s 14 tracks were presented to me as an unreleased recording from 1993 or thereabouts, I’m guessing I would’ve bought that bogus backstory hook line and sinker.
Now some will point to this record’s fuzzed-up but easily recognizable and downright snazzy version of the Grateful Dead’s “New Speedway Boogie” as the tell to this hypothetical fib, but I’ll counter with the cover of “Cream Puff War” by the underheard early ’90s outfit Wonderama (featuring guitarist Dave Rick), which was released on the B-side of a 45 at the dawn of ’90s by the Ajax label of Chicago. Yes, even that far back indie bands were cozying up to the Dead.
Portions of this disc, and particularly when Stok is singing, are a bit like the K Records aesthetic rubbing up against the gush of the early Elephant 6 Collective (see “Shannon’s Song”), but the overall thrust is definitely beyond mere scene grafting. For one thing, while they are frequently stripped down, Sloppy Heads never tip over into the non-adept, and if handy with the psych and the pop, they don’t flirt with bubblegum vibes. But right off the bat in “Possession,” Stok’s vocals got me to thinking of solo Maureen Tucker, which is a swell thing. Same with the touch of Cramps at the start of “Love is a Disease.”
In other tracks, such as the noisy “Between Pitches (Vibrator),” the influences are less clear, but the ooze of indie rock classicism is still present. And if lacking in polish, Sloppy Heads’ sound is full-bodied, as Gary Olson recorded and mixed most of the record. James McNew, who lends instrumental assistance to the set, mixed “New Speedway Boogie.”
The 13 minutes of “Still Right Now,” with its extended psych-trip excursion radiating like Sonic Youth decked out in paisley, deliver the album a standout. Sloppy Heads do expand elsewhere, with a handful of cuts, e.g. the melancholy “Try Again” early in the sequence and the quirky slow-lope of “Langue and Parole” late, bypassing the six-minute mark, but they also keep matters tidy when necessary, such as the sunshiny strum psych-pop of “Me Do Love” and The Beach Boys by way of Jad Fair “Serf City.”
Album closer “Baby Becoming” exudes a similarity to The Clean before blooming into a full-blown indie-psych-churn finale. Instead of throwing back, with Sometimes Just One Second, Sloppy Heads carry the sound of old school indie rock into the here and now with pizzazz.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
