Breaker! Breaker!
Where All The Birds Yell
(Velocirecords)
Breaker! Breaker! is a trio of musicians that make skronky keyboard-punk music that feels like a damaged hybrid of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Le Tigre. Heck, I picked up the release by the former group last year and found it so utterly pretentious that I simply couldn't stomach it. On the other hand, Where All The Birds Yell is a quick blast of slightly derainged music that hooks with rather simple melodies and sing-song vocals and comes in swinging then gets the heck out before you quite knew what hit you.
Ripping through 10 tracks in just under 25 minutes, the group definitely knows efficiency, and it works in their favor. "Way Up, Way Up" featuts vocals by all three members (2 guys, one gal) of the band as instrumentation behind smokes along with grimey organs and thumping drums that remind one of an old track by Clinic. "Twilight Dependencies" keeps things barreling along as everyone again pitches in on vocal duties while the instrumentation gets even dirtier with walls of catchy keyboards and dry-as-heck guitars.
So yeah, you could probably chuck Breaker! Breaker! in with the whole dancepunk genre, but this trio is quite a bit dirtier and a bit more lo-fi punk rock than disco. Upon first listen, it sounds like they're simply treading the same path that many other bands have before them, but it's actually the three-part vocals that help them stick out. While their rhythmic styles and tempos of tracks don't really change up a whole lot, the group has laden the tracks with hooks and bounce off the walls like a grittier version of the B-52s. Hyper, fun stuff that will get your hipster hips swinging.
Rating: 7.25
