5 out of 5

Label: Herapin

Recorded by: Steve Rizzo

When I found Laurels’ second full length in a used bin, it registered to me as an “oh, everyone must know this band” type of find; something I needed to add to my collection for cool kid credibility.

That turned out to not be the case, of course, but what a blessed discovery: amidst a sea of angular, post-rock rockers in the mid 90s (with an Albini recording credit, to boot), Laurels’ mix and match of Shellac stop-starts and Quarterstick-esque artrock and blasts of bluesy hardcore made for something that, by that very description, sounds like a shoe-in for early Touch and Go, but in my mind superseded a lot of that when you’re actually listening to it – let this wandering sentence make clear (?) that they’re hard to describe.

…Typified extremely well by this 7″, the B-side of which appeared on that full-length, and is a restless, unplugged spoken-sung track, that keeps threatening to become something louder and less constrained, and expertly hangs on its energy and tension throughout as a result.

Lead-in Hate Me is a great juxtaposition: grungey and loud and kind of backstepping into its chorus, sounding somewhat positive until you remember its title and cue into its lyrics; this is a better recorded and more East Coast-indie rock take on noise rock like early Grifters.