Emotional Response at Whisperin and Hollerin

This is one of 3 singles all now out on Flagstaff Arizona’s Emotional Response label. They all come with bonus material on the download cards and are on coloured vinyl; this time out it’s marbled purple which is very cool indeed.

Hulaboy are Eric from Hula Hoop and Stuart Anderson from Boyracer who have apparently been putting out stuff together now for 20 years. From the opening line of “That’s What Facebooks for”, Exes and Enemies is a dry look at what you find out about your exes by trawling Facebook all over some ripe C86-style indie reminiscent of The Popguns and with some great keyboards.

Now if you only download it and don’t play the 7″ single the next song is The Kid Asked: a heart-breaking story about a kid witnessing some domestic violence. It’s moving and a slow rumination on the damage done to the witnesses let alone the victims of violence. Back to the vinyl where Exes and Enemies is followed by the excellent Napalm Heart: a bittersweet song about a woman with a heart of Napalm that sounds quite sweet despite the vicious lyrics.

On the b-side is Kids Under Stars; a cool Psych-indie tune that reminds me of Spitfire or early Hang Ten-era Soup Dragons with a garage-rock edge and cool lyrics and then towards the end it goes properly wonky with a bass riff that could have been stolen from Joy Division. But on the download that’s much later on.

Anyway, taking the bonus tracks (all 7 of them) I Find Your Topsiders and Beard Amusing is odd and compelling and rather out there wonky indie with a sly grin on its face. Hey opens with the EP’s title track He’s Making Violent Love To Me, Mother as the clattering begins and it could almost be the raggedy end of the Drop Nineteens or Velvet Crush over some deep lyrics about the love that has gone and why he don’t want her back.

I’m Not From Louisville I’m From LaGrange Motherfucker is a clattering, shambling rant rock after someone obviously said he looked like the slugger or some other local insult that set him off on one. And this song IS off on one!!

The Western Mark E Smith makes an attempt to put a western tinge on him as opposed to The Jazz Butcher’s Southern Mark Smith. He certainly deserves the treatment as this sounds like The Fall gone awry and trying to behave like they are sober. As if!! It’s also a song about betrayal and love gone wrong in odd ways.

Not Another Orange Juice Song is actually a cover of Echo and the Bunnymen’s The Cutter and they do a good clattering job as it’s just off enough to kind of nail it and not have the preening cock of the walk insouciance that Mac the Mouth is famous for.

The download bit finishes with the brief and cool We Saw Crispin Glover: as much a fade out as anything but a cool end to a very interesting single and download that can be found at Emotional Response Bandcamp page.

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