Your Skull My Closet count ex-members of Small Brown Bike and Thoughts of Ionesco among their ranks, but it doesn't seem logical to use that band as a reference point at all, really. YSMC's Let's Get Acquainted EP is instead a driven, punky indie rock record closer to the melodic restraint of mildly noisy acts like Counterfit, No Knife or even Jawbox.
The band's strengths lie in these ever-changing guitar tones and riffs, but the transitions are always smoothly jaunty. You never know what's coming next, and it's certainly providing some dynamism. The main vocals are of a steady sung variety, but every once in a while there's some intermittent screams–if you could call it that. They're subtle, and very quick. Hell, there's what sounds like bird squawking in "Say Simple Things," but it all just adds to the lightly perverse atmosphere.
Even in more aggressive moments like on "Like You Do Down Below," there's a bizarre control to it all, while the random noises litter everything to make for a unique environment. This song's followed by the slower, more pensive track of the bunch, "My Crazy Wife," but even this one has some loose yelps with a groove-laden beat under it.
There's a soundbite at the end of the title track that seems to sum up the quality level here well: "That was decent. That was decent. It was great. It was good." This EP's strangely scattershot, but it works.
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Let's Get Acquainted
My Crazy Wife
Billion Year Phallus