Brick Mower

My Hateable Face (2012)

Joe Pelone

Just a year removed from last full-length Under the Sink, Brick Mower’s follow-up, My Hateable Face, is already ready for consumption. Here are more tasty Orgcore morsels for the faithful, another blast of catchy, kinda pop-punky tunes with a dash of grungy guitars. It’s sloppy and fun, and would sit well with fans of Mean Jeans and Shellshag alike.

My Hateable Face opens strong with “Touchdown Jesus,” and never really lets up. While the tunes aren’t particularly fast, the band does get marginally shorter/louder/faster on occasion with sub-two-minute tracks like “Cheap Gasoline” and “New Steam.” Otherwise, though, these tunes fall either just shy of or just over the three-minute mark, garage rock charm and all.

Straight up, it’s hard to hate on a record this agreeable. Granted, other bands can get sludgier, poppier, punkier, etc. But what makes Brick Mower such a no-brainer is the way the group effortlessly combines all those attributes. The band gets vaguely threatening lyrically (in a totally cool way; dig lines like “Well it’s the right kind of moment / With the wrong kind of tourniquet,” from “Black Market Cigarettes”), but never veers off into so-dark-it’s-goofy territory. By any sane unit of measurement, My Hateable Face is a good record.

But it’s not a great one. That’s the downside to cultivating a jack of all trades approach; Brick Mower isn’t necessarily the kind of band to inspire fever dreams and tattoo tributes. Still, it’s a small quibble, really, because, again, My Hateable Face rocks the house. Pick this one up.