Singles

Blowupblow - Supertonight

Matt Harrold 01/02/2007

Rating: 3/5

West coast music normally brings to mind heavy rifting stoner rock of Queens of the Stone Age or the 60's psychedelic drone out of the likes of Brian Jones Town Massacre. All sun kissed drugs nirvana and languid lays on sandy beaches, smoking away the spliff you've been saving since last Saturday's house party. Enter Blowupblow who formed in 2003 from the ashes of local cult bands Action League, Fuselage & Wash as well as the still going Free Moral Agents & The Bodies. Hailing from Long Beach, California Blow Up Blow manage to buck the trend of their more blissed out brethren and instead take up the reigns of post rock colliding with the celestial likes of kraut rockers Can.

Supertonight sounds like Gang of Four coming out of the closet with their love of Mars Volta style song structures. For over Eight minutes your launched into the stratosphere of pin point drumming that wouldn't go amiss on a Bloc Party album and guitars sharp enough to shave with. It's a surprisingly good song in itself even if it doesn't sound like
Blowupblow have gotten beyond the 80's. The Amish Riot Mix of the same song goes one better and would actually make a great dance floor filler if it weighed in at under half the length. Get Anywhere and Lost Control both clamber amongst the cardboard boxes of garage rock, coming away gleefully with their mitts full of MC5 rifts against a more traditional West Coast sound plucked straight from amongst the stars. Though they don't pull out the most original tracks going it's early days yet for BlowupBlow and there's plenty of room for exploration into deep space. It's just another count down time till the next shuttle launches.

Released 30/01/07