Trash Glamour＜Starburst Vinyl＞

New York City's Beechwood met as teenage skateboarders who were obsessed with the Ramones, the Stooges, and other staples of early punk and glam. Though their sound would smooth out into something more refined as the years progressed, their earliest recorded material was tenaciously raw. Originally released as a cassette, the group's 2014 debut Trash Glamour was recorded in a basement practice space, allegedly with a single microphone, resulting in ten tracks of incredibly rough-around-the-edges rock & roll. Still at the end of their teenage years, the creative duo of Gordon Lawrence and Isa Tineo spent that summer listening to the Stooges' Raw Power and the Stones' Exile on Main St. on repeat as they wrote and recorded Trash Glamour. Indeed, there are similarities here to the murky, confused production of both of those classics. Songs like "City Boy Blue" and "I Can't Stop It" aim for the palpable danger of the Stooges or the strung-out swagger of the Stones. When they're not in a full-force swing of stomping punk blues, songs like "Milk" and "Bleach Blonde" call on more tender girl group inclinations, and these examples of more vulnerable songwriting set the tone for the sound of albums that would follow. ~ Fred Thomas