I like music. I have a band. I’m gonna tell you all about it.
What I look for in rock: guitars, melody, guitars, energy, guitars, and guitars.
What is a Mind Spider?
I’m not quite sure. But from piecing together referencers from the songs on this album, I can safely say that it’s some manner of invisible creature that invades the brain, causing an elevated state of rock consciousness.
So, I played this at game night, and Rich said it sounded “retro”. Which is an interesting choice of words in these times. Nostalgia always has a place in the music underground. Bands longing for musical genres and individual bands long since forgotten by everyone else… these are the building blocks of scenes. These days, “garage rock” is a movement. I have bands in my collection that sound like they swept the cutting room floor of the James Gang. Or Sabbath. Or The Sonics. Circle of life.
I’m not saying this is bad or good. I’m just sayin’.
Back to the Mind Spiders and their album Meltdown. They start off by proclaiming that us, the listener, are dead. And then proceed on to fastidiously power garage-y pop, with nu-wave flourishes. Nu-wave is code for keyboards.
Here’s the thing with keyboards in bands: often disappointing. The curse of the rock keyboardist is that they must find a place in every song. And much like the dreaded saxophone, keyboards simply don’t fit in every rock song. Luckily for the Mind Spiders, the keyboards are never out of place. Even the throw-away final track is jaunty. I like jaunty.
I find this album solid. It may lose a little steam near the end, but that’s endemic for the medium.