Awful Sirs is the new band featuring Bill from Slumberland Records band Kids On A Crime Spree. The debut album is called Looking Up, and it's out today via Empty Wallet Records. What's here should feel familiar to anyone who's loved Bill's old band, or Young Guv, or Tony Molina. And that's another way of saying that this is indie-pop mixed with healthy doses of power-pop.
"Yeah You Tell Me" is scuzzy goodness, riffs like something from Ultra Vivid Scene but vocals that recall a happier Thurston Moore, while "Don't You Call" is chiming and more pop-oriented. Elsewhere, "Slipping In Out of Time" made me think of Elephant 6 stuff, and even any number of pre-Oasis Creation Records bands, while "C'Mon", like other bits here, revs up like someone with a bunch of early JAMC records in their collection.
For all that talk of comparison points, the tunes are all tight and wonderfully concise. Bill Evans has a way with this kind of thing that rivals some of that Young Guv stuff, and if this is decidedly more lo-fi, the sound overall is always engaging. Every cut on Looking Up is propulsive, fun, and/or wildly catchy. It's the type of thing that can be recommended to audiences as disparate as old GBV fans, listeners to The Shins, and folks who clutch their Meat Whiplash sides close to their indie hearts. This one was a really nice, pleasant surprise.
Looking Up is out today via Empty Wallets.