The new band Quiz Show features two guys who were in both Shudder to Think and Guided By Voices and the music here really sounds like neither one of those acts. Add bassist Jesse Krakow to Kevin March and Chris Matthews and you have a power trio. Of sorts. Quiz Show drops on Friday and it should appeal to fans of robust post-punk.
"Sound of Kissing" roars like Girls Against Boys (another set of D.C. legends), while "Almost Famous" is rougher still. This one surges with a real punk energy, but the sort of punk that energized acts like Nineties Bad Religion, for example. It's supple and sleek, not hardcore, and that's great too. Elsewhere, "Dime a Dozen" and "Big Bank" seem to be taking cues from The Jesus Lizard and Big Black, even if these tunes are a good deal more accessible than those of either of those seminal outfits. For the real heads out there, it should be enough to say that some of this sounds like The Dambuilders, another home perch of Kevin March was in way back when.
Quiz Show wisely place a premium on force, preferring a muscular post-punk that's got a modern sheen to it. All of Quiz Show engages on its own terms, though things are pitched in such a way that this could be widely enjoyed music, should audiences find it. I listen to this and think March has, like his GBV frontman Robert Pollard, found a way to not sacrifice integrity while still making something that's catchy, frankly. There are bits here that are as angular as a Wire record, and others that punch with the macho heft of a Queens of the Stone Age one, and still others that wouldn't sound out of place on a Foo Fighters album. That's all to say that this whole release is a joy for a listener like me, who's been raised on a steady diet of all the artists I've mentioned in the course of this review. I hope these dudes tour and record more.
Quiz Show by Quiz Show is out on Friday.
[Photo: Robert Silverberg]