There is nothing more exciting than listening to an album you’ve never heard by a band you’ve never heard and be blown away.That’s what The Porchistas did to me here. I have always had a liking for folkish music, but never did I listen to anything like this. They used horns in their weird beats with their raspy singing and don’t care sound.
It all starts with the first song “Friends In The Underground.” This song starts off with horns and a simple, consistent bass and guitar line. The raspy singing mixed with the horns sounded great, but the sax solo at the end took me by surprise. It was beautiful and perfectly placed. Nothing better than a sax solo. “Tooty Tooty Ta” is a song that starts off with a very country sound, then gets a little more punk sounding. Its a simple lyrical song which makes it great to sing along to. This is one of my personal favorites off the album.
“Make A Wish” starts off with a jazzy feel, and maintains it to a decent level throughout. It seems like every song has a different sound to it, and I can barely keep up. “Zombie Jesus” is honestly the first song I heard off this album, just because of its name. And man, this song is crazy. The words are wild and the deep “Zombie, Zombie, Zombie Jesus” chant is sinister in itself. The rest of the song is just a catchy little song. This song is by far my favorite song off the album, its a lot of fun, and its very weird.
“Swing Little Girl” is a soft song consisting of a violin and xylophone, then they use the creepy-ish low voice that I adore so much. They throw in the occasional harmony which adds to the weirdness and beauty of it all. “Oh Brother” is a song with a nice reggae kind of feel with the guitar riffs and solos. It is very vocally driven, but the guitar is what seems to keep it going.
“Song For Harry” is the last song off the album. It starts off with a familiar beat being played on the acoustic guitar. Its a very folky song in the sense its basically just two guys singing over the most common acoustic riff ever. Either way, it is a great song to end it off with. It kind of sums up who these guys are. Eccentric, yet extremely talented.
I have never had a tougher time reviewing this album only because I couldn’t quite find words that can fairly describe these guys to you. They are their own sound, whatever that may be. Every song has a different genre, and a different feel. I expect these guys to play a lot of festivals over the next few years because they will blow up if they do so. I have never heard a band so weird and eccentric, but yet enjoyed so much on my first listen. If this review seems weak, ignore it and listen to them anyway. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
For more information on The Porchistas check out their official website, Facebook, and Twitter pages.