Spring is in the air and Baby Teardrops provide a cool soundtrack for the last few snowboard and the first few skate or surfboard sessions of the year. The New York trio trash out convincing Post Punk or Proto Grunge with a 1980’s feel. Fans of pioneering 80’s Westcoast label SST Records and acts like Dinosaur L, Angst, Trotsky Icepick or Husker Du should give this a spin.
“Can you dig it?” asks Baby Teardrops lead singer Matthew Dunehoo. “My songs are opportunities for one idea to exist in the air [..]. Most could double as jingles for reasonably priced toothpaste.”
Originally formed in 2007, the band really only got serious about playing together in March of last year. In a few intense months, Baby Teardrops wrote enough material to fill their debut album ‘X Is For Love’. These are urgent, often somewhat sketchy songs that make do with an idea and a few chords. It’s all very instant and could do with a bit of polish, but the sound is already there. It’s the big wall-of-guitar noise grounded by propulsive bass and drums that screams 80’s Grunge, yet the songwriting has moved on and Baby Teardrops are more than a Grunge revival band.
From the Byrds like vocal harmonies of the opener’ME Where’ - very Husker Du in it’s Byrds references - to the Poppy ‘Flag Of Inner Revolution’ and the REM-goes-Hard-Rock of ‘Banged In The Heart’, the Baby Teardrops spin a web of sound that is unashamedly rocking, old school cruising music. ‘X Is For Love’ is a hommage to the days when music was gloriously simple and smelled of stale beer and amps.
Catch Baby Teardrops playing this year’s SXSW talent scouting festival in Austin, Texas - They are on at the Liberty on 19th March.
‘Banged In The Heart’ by Baby Teardrops
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