MARY AND THE BOY
S/T
(Low Impedance)

QUEEN ELEPHANTINE
Surya
(Self-Released)

KEN MODE
Reprisal
(Escape Artist)

SHELLSHAG
Destroy Me I'm Yours
(Starcleaner)

THINE EYES BLEED
S/T
(The End)

GREY DATURAS
Return to Disruption 

(Neurot)

GOD'S REVOLVER
Little Black Horse Where Are

You Going With Your Dead 
River

(Exigent)

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Oooohhh! I like left off field. Weird is always good. More satisfying than complying to the status quo any month of the year, any day of the week. Even if you suck smelly ass. It is still better. Far better.  Even if no artistry went into it. Even if the recording reveals a complete lack of talent. Even if therefore, your best song sounds like a lucky strike. The luck of the fucker that hastily put together a catchy song. Even if it all sounds like a half-assed attempt at creating something original. Hell, at least you are trying with the most difficult medium. I know that if I was attempting to achieve rock stardom I’d go for an easier angle; maybe I’d play some metalcore. Or some emo riddled shit, dual vocals included for maximum exposure. Or some guitar strummed pop friendly indie rock. Or some countrified blues rocking rock. Or, I’d reduce my line up to a two piece for maximum profit sharing and White Stripes hip-ability. Or some bald headed futuristic math metal a la early Dillinger Escape Plan. About the last one I can say, what the fuck is up with all these youngsters playing it like is all about virtuosity? It is not.

Anyway, the true question is; is Shellshag too soft for Deaf Sparrow? Not really. There is a soft quality to them that almost kicks them out of the equation but they have enough weirdness, enough rock guitars, enough zest, enough rock value, enough distortion to make them Deaf Sparrow worthy. And what is Deaf Sparrow worthy? Fuck, nearly everything as long as it is heavy and/or weird (read: a tag that can be generalized as ‘experimental’) which is precisely where I would place this Co-Ed Brooklyn duo. Who by the way go their way distorting their slow tunes at the pace of a Down boy, and who even go a bit bluesy via the charming vocal bravado of the guy in “Right and Wrong” and who, if we go by the law of Co-Ed duos, should also provide the guitar work.  Some of Destroy Me I’m Yours is quite dandy. Unsurprisingly, its best parts do not come in the first handful of songs, which might put off those impatient ones. I am more into the sadness of “Bill Badgley, Please Don’t Let Me Fade Away” or into the Kim Deal-like sweetness of “Make Love”. That I dig a great deal.

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