OK, so the angular guitar driven danceable rock thing has been done over and over and over. Enough bands have emulated the Gang Of Four formula this year to just about suck the life out of that genre of rock. With this mentality, I was a bit skeptical when the latest album from GoGoGo Airheart landed on my desk. Rather than falling for the cookie cutter rubbish that has been regurgitated far too many times, this San Diego rock band has given us a lo-fi treat that does have some angular guitars (gasp), and is danceable, yet offers a breath of fresh air for simply not taking themselves too seriously. GoGoGo Airheart easily changes gears throughout their fifth album, Rats! Sing! Sing!, sliding from bouncy Britpop to dub jams to garage rock and everything in between. A few of their songs make me think of a bass-heavy, lo-fi distant cousin of The Walkmen. This really popped up during “The Big Girl Of Beauty”, which features a sparse piano line that meanders around a distorted drum kit and crunchy guitars. With “Taxi Up”, GGGA (as we will refer to them for the remainder of this review) kick out the dance-punk jams, ripping through fat bass lines and frontman Mike Mermillion’s wavering vocals that are reminiscent of early tracks from The Rapture. “Lie With The Lamb” is a great indie rock track, plain and simple. Throughout the album, GGGA walks a fine line between sloppy-indie improvisation and well-recorded material, with the finished product sounding like a collection of great tunes recorded in a buddy’s garage studio. The result is an entertaining collection of tracks that are unpretentious, embracing small bits of indie garage rock and danceable DFA fueled inspiration that makes for one of the most pleasant surprises of the year. It isn’t groundbreaking, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun as hell.

GoGoGo Airheart
Gold Standard Labs

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