Remember that grunge-revival that was supposed to happen a couple of years ago? You know, before Wolf Alice said their album wasn’t going to be a grunge album? Back when bands like Deap Vally and Drenge were on every other page of the NME? Well False Heads aren’t any of those, but they do sound remarkably similar.
2015’s Wear and Tear sounds markedly more mature than last year’s Tunnel Vision, but that’s not to say the band have lost any of their youthful charm. In fact, if anything, the new EP seems to lean more towards the slightly uninterested sound of that much-praised ‘B-Town Indie’ scene that you’re not really allowed to call the ‘B Town Indie scene’ anymore. God, I feel old.
But to spice up the effortlessness of the vocals, the instrumentals veer more towards thick, grungy garage-rock influences, some brash and angsty with some more technical riffs threaded in and looped for effect. It’s a sound that, by now, we’re probably all familiar with, but it’s done noticeably well, and that’s what makes it stand out.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k82CwUmC-Wg&w=740&h=422]
‘Wrap Up’ has to be the favourite. It’s almost a bit Rage Against the Machine on the guitar and each participating aspect feels confident and purposeful. Though the blend of contemporarily-styled vocals and timeless punky riffs may be a bit of an oddball, it comes together as more than the sum of its individual parts, which makes it all slot together quite neatly.
Albeit less lively, Protomartyr, for reference, isn’t too far away and Slaves perhaps even less so. False Heads have done with their second EP what some bands take years to perfect, and I’d expect to see them on a few line-ups in the not too distant future.
Words by James