Indie rock bands emulating the sounds their heroes made back in ’68 and ’72 isn’t unusual. Majority of the time the bands are stuck in a box, afraid to think and create outside the circle, but for Bad Shapes this is hardly the case.
Do you get off on tracks that sound like they were written and recorded in the era of peace, love and orgasmic rock n roll?! Then The Fix is for you.
The budding songwriting duo, consisting of Joe Driver of Belles Will Ring and Steve McLennan from Buried Feather, are today releasing the second half of a double whammy of singles from their forthcoming record.
Bad Shapes are rock ‘n’ roll band in every sense of the word: heavy, consistent beats, rollicking riffs, and fiendish, nonchalant vocals amalgamating to give off stirring Traffic, Queens of the Stone Age and Sabbath hybrid vibrations with a hint of British indie rock. It’s hard not to like music like this – uncomplicated and unpretentious, with enough venom to keep you hooked.
The Fix follows on from Black Goo, which dropped this time last week. Both were recorded live to tape at Sydney’s Linear studios with Nick Franklin (The Grates, Deep Sea Arcade), a process which manifests is self immediately on first listen. It’s gritty and warm from the start, the mix punchy with drums, vocals and grating guitars lashing out and dragging you in right away.
The tune follows an insistent guitar motif that curls and licks its way through verse, before a fuzzed out solo that cuts through head-bangingly hypnotic repetitiveness suggesting the exploration of druggier territory, which while not fully probed here, with any hope will be delved into on their full-length record.
It’s the kind of warped half-cocked-wah solo that makes your face droop and contort in blood-thirty lust and your hands curl up on your chest to replicate what is in your ears. Then everything drops off.
It’s a false-ending so perfectly placed that it’s kind of annoying – you can’t help but want to keep on rocking. Thankfully Bad Shapes are a merciful duo, giving you another half minute of bliss before everything screeches to a halt.
A timeless tune that’ll take you back to rock’s finest days, The Fix, once again emphasises that bands in 2016 can create music just as encapsulating, sexy, and full of finesse. Keep it coming, legends!
