Milhouse

Everything's Coming Up... [7-inch] (2012)

Bryne Yancey

There are plenty of valid arguments bemoaning the instant gratification, accessibility and ultimate disposability of music in 2012. It's very easy to end up inundated with sheer garbage, because anyone can be in a band now with little attention paid to skill or quality control. It makes the gems more difficult to find, both in a record store and online, but once they're found the taste (and sound) is almost sweeter, in a way.

Such is the case with Milhouse, a three-piece from Sydney, Australia who take their songwriting quirks and use them as cogs in an inherently catchy machine, as opposed to a sole selling point. Everything's Coming Up… is the most fun EP you're likely to hear in a long time, and it's played admirably and affably.

Running down the four songs that make up the EP, opener "TL;DR" is the strongest of the collection, with full-blown power chords that recall bands like Piebald and Hey Mercedes, and unabashedly clever lyrics about Internet shorthand that, as on-the-nose as they are, serve as a commentary on the social anxieties people develop by being chained to their phones and laptops instead of, y'know, actually speaking to other people.

The hits continue after that, though, and different instrumentation is incorporated for extra layers of sound, whether it's the Moog in "Eggs" or the piano in "Holiday." It's all done without any shred of irony, which is difficult to accomplish in a band like this. Closer "Uncanny Valley" shoots for straight-up science fiction with its lyrical content and laces it with huge melodies and impressive musicianship–Hell, the whole EP is impressive in that matter, considering that according to the band, it was recorded after only a handful of rehearsals together (three-and-a-half, to be exact).

Everything's Coming Up… is available for free download via Bandcamp and 7" vinyl can be imported via Midnight Funeral, though it'll hopefully only be a matter of time before the band have North American and European labels as well.