Although their band name may sound like a crappy shot that a friend would buy you on your twenty-first birthday, Bang Lime definitely won’t cause you to spend the early hours of the morning hugging the porcelain throne, unless you’re allergic to danceable indie rock. Their sound is a little dirty and much more rock & roll than their other band, which you just might be familiar of.
Yes, Bang Lime is the project of Metric bassist Josh Winstead and drummer Joules Scott-Key. Although a bit of the dance sound of their other band remains, this is much more rock than Metric. Bang Lime has taken the best parts of Death From Above 1979, mashed it up with a little Electric Six, and served it with a side of White Stripes.
Much of the charm of the duo’s debut, Best Friends In Love, comes from the recording itself. Winstead and Scott-Key cranked out these ten songs in two weeks, in absolute analog greatness. The end result, such as in the opener “Kings And Queens,” is no-frills, grimy indie rock, and I mean that in a damn good way. The tempo then picks up with “The Death Of Death,” almost sounding like a stripped down Queens Of The Stone Age, if Josh Homme was more interested in making indie kids bump and grind on the dancefloor.
The QOTSA similarities return on “Equator,” with more fat guitar licks and infectious melodies. For nothing more than drums, guitar and vocals, Winstead and Scott-Key have no problem whatsoever cramming plenty of rock into each track. They’ve got plenty of noise to fill it your noise-starved eardrums. By the time you get down to “Blood Orange” and “Sailing,” you’re pretty much figured out Bang Lime’s musical formula. Sick guitar hooks and some tight drumming abound throughout the thirty-ish minutes of Best Friends In Love, which is just about all you need.
Bang Lime shows two talented musicians who have remained out of the spotlight for just a bit too long. While providing the danceable rhythm section for Metric, these dudes just need to rock the fuck out once in a while, which they have successfully gotten out of their system with this debut album. If you’ve been needing some DFA1979, this will take care of that craving!
