Obits November 13, 2010

Every so often over the past few years you’d hear a whisper about this new Brooklyn band featuring a couple of indie rock veterans. Supposedly they’d been practicing since 2006, but weren’t ready to play live yet. Then they finally did play and immediately a bootleg recording of that first show spread all over the web. In lieu of having anything recorded for people to hear, the band even put some of the songs on its MySpace page.

But little did Obits know how much the listening public was clamoring to hear more. With only the bootleg to go on, bloggers tried to fill in the blanks with comparisons both apt and not. They don’t really sound that much like Creedence, maybe a little. Who knows what the people at Sub Pop were thinking, other than they wanted the band to join their roster post-haste–in July of 2008 they invited Obits to play their 20th anniversary bash in Seattle, months before the ink was even dry on any contract.

All that brings us to I Blame You, Obits’ Sub Pop debut. You’ll know this on hearing it, but the truth is this: I Blame You is a rock’n’roll record. And like all the best rock’n’roll records, it’s a group synthesis of the band’s combined influences. On I Blame You Obits take apart and reassemble the genre’s traditions, raving up the ‘30s-era blues standard “Milk Cow Blues,” group vocalizing on a Motown-y mid-tempo ballad (“Back and Forth”), bopping through bass-driven rockers (“Two-Headed Coin”), taking surf-y riffs for a burning-rubber spin (“Pine On”). And it’s all done with a palpable, genuine sense of fun throughout.

Official Website: http://bk.knittingfactory.com/event-details/?tfly_event_id=14791