Amplified Exclusive: Bad Veins

It's not often these days that I find an album I like from start to finish. (I assume it's the same for many, if not most, of you.) I tend to harvest the best tracks for my shuffle and move on.

The debut from Bad Veins is one of those rare albums for me. I first heard of these guys last year when the Tripwire featured them and linked to some of their songs, including the winning anthem "Gold and Warm," which is track #2 on the new album. I can't say their sound has changed much since those first tracks surfaced. They seem to have emerged into the world fully formed. The songs all have a solid pop foundation, with soaring vocals and crunchy drums, but they're also often embroidered with lots of weird (but not cloying) little touches. (Eg: a creepy choir, and perhaps the first not-annoying sax since the days before Rocket From the Crypt started to sound like Sha Na Na.) The best example of this sort of sonic experimentation would be the exquisite noise break they do in the middle of song #3.

On a recent trip across Africa, I had this album on heavy, heavy rotation during interminable plane, truck and boat rides. I say this without irony: it is a genuine privilege to get to share this with the world a week before it goes into general release. My thanks to the band, their publicist Tim and their label.

Enjoy.

(Dan Harris)

Bad Veins