To date, DC duo Teen Mortgage has released a consistently dynamite teaser of what they are capable of with two previous EPs. Now it has all come perfectly together with ‘Smoked‘ a 5-track atomic bomb from King Pizza.
Guitarist – vocalist James Guile and drummer Ed Barakauskas make an enormous amount of noise and the descriptors of their music often include loud, grimy, and sludgy garage punk with a copious amount of hooks. This time they’re moving out of the garage a little and adding atmospheric to the mix to seal the deal.
‘Shangri-La‘ leads off with a dirty metallic riff that motors along with a Killing Joke post-punk menace while ‘Smoked‘ is fuzzed-out and overdriven with a killer chorus. ‘Ghost Girl‘ is a sonic lumbering beast that draws from the grunge era, mixing the stoner noise of Tad/Melvins with the drone of Nirvana. The duo then pummels their way through ‘Can I Live‘ before gearing down for ‘Valley‘ an atmospheric, doomy, face-melting, fuzz-heavy groover with a hazy psychedelic vibe. How’s that for covering all the bases?
