3 out of 5

Label: Chunklet

Produced by: Various, Jonathan Nuñez

Part Chimp rock socks; Torche do their thing poppy hardcore thing, toward which I am admittedly not favorable, but they choose a great outlet here: Guided By Voices covers.

PC’s blend of classic and sludge rock with grungey affectations hit hard as nails on their two outings, here: Dr. Horse and The Watcher. The latter appears to be the Motorhead song, but it’s slowed down to stoner proportions and kind of both cleaned up (like it feels somewhat simplified) and also made tons meatier with the group’s fuzz-heavy sound. In both cases, as is common with Chimp, the songs feel a bit stretched out, taking some bars to find their legs, but they just sound so damn good that you’re willing to give them that space.

Over on Torche’s side, I tend to find their style just particularly indistinct – not heavy enough, not unique enough, not catchy enough, and etc. They go with Bob Pollard’s incredibly honed songcraft and, arguably, tighten aspects of these tunes up, as their more streamlined style taps into GBV’s pop hooks but shaves off the edges. (Whether that’s good or bad…) Still, be the time of their third cover, it’s already worn a bit thin, whether because of my perceived limitations of Torche’s sound, some similarities in the tracks they chose, or some lacking passion given that these are covers – dealer’s choice on that. I just found my interests taking a dive after being pleasantly surprised by the first couple tracks.