Michelle Peña is in charge here of Repo Fam. The Baltimore group's newest release, the EP Whipped Cream, drops today and it's a kick in the head. What's here are four cuts of brash rudeness, and brazen fun, each track accompanied by its own video directed by Pena. The entirety of this presentation offers up proof of a talent that deserves a whole lot of attention.
"King of Marvin Gardens" roars and clangs like both early Sonic Youth and early Stereolab while winning points for being named after a superb film, even as "Psycho Bombs" has a nice mix of girl group and Nuggets influences throughout it. Elsewhere, "Whipped Cream" is rough and blissed out, think Ultra Vivid Scene but with more bad intent, even as the closer "Here We Come" is a wicked stomper.
Whipping up influences with ease, Michelle Peña makes Repo Fam feel like one of the best bands you've heard in ages, even as it sounds like a dozen you've loved for decades. The presentation here, the videos doing the heavy lifting there, suggests a group that wouldn't have been out of place on Teen-beat so many years ago, even if Pena injects each track here with a whole lot of nastiness. The roughness of riffs, and the way about a dozen influences seem to have been thrown in a blender makes me love this EP.
Whipped Cream is out now via the link below.
[Photo: Sean Connell]