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Following a proud rock \u2018n\u2019 roll tradition of misleading band names, The Brothers Steve aren\u2019t brothers, and none is named Steve. The L.A.-based band plays its own brand of powerpop, with a healthy dose of bubblegum added into the mix. The band has previous released three singles (including a Christmas-themed one) but their debut album (#1<\/i>) features seven new songs alongside three tunes that appeared on those (digital-only) singles.<\/p>\n
In keeping with The Brothers Steve\u2019s cartoon aesthetic \u2013 check their website for examples \u2013 the music on #1<\/i> has strong echoes of The Vandalias, a cartoon-themed powerpop band immortalized on one of Jordan Oakes\u2019 essential Yellow Pills<\/i> sets. But the chirpy vocals are supported by music with a harder edge, reminiscent of Redd Kross at their clever-pop punkiest.<\/p>\n
Harmonies and ba-ba vocals slay me, and #1<\/em> serves up both in great measure. The muscular riffage of \u201cAngeline\u201d is balanced by the group\u2019s strong vocal work. \u201cShe\u201d isn\u2019t the Monkees classic, but it\u2019s a solid jangle-pop tune nonetheless, featuring some winning chord changes and subtlety amid the rocking-out-ness.<\/p>\n The band changes things up stylewise while operating inside their chosen genre. \u201cCarolanne\u201d is sweet, chiming pop in a manner that recalls Matthew Sweet. The title and refrain of one of the album\u2019s strongest cuts exclaims, \u201cWe Got the Hits,\u201d and while that may or may not be accurate in a commercial context, in terms of quality, The Brothers Steve deliver on that promise. And the psychedelically-tinged \u201cC\u2019mon Pappy\u201d channels the ambitious melodic rock of 1960s L.A. legends Love.<\/p>\n Continuing on that \u201860s theme, Side Two opener \u201cSongwriter\u201d suggests what it might sound like if The Stooges and The Monkees had hooked up. (Put another way, it\u2019s again redolent of Redd Kross.) Previously released \u2013 albeit with a different mix \u2013 as Big Stir Records digital single #81, the catchy \u201cCarry Me\u201d is certainly single-worthy.<\/p>\n Hand claps often find a place in god-timing pop rock, and they\u2019re very much at home on \u201cGood Deal of Love.\u201d The song may not break any new ground stylistically, but it\u2019s memorable, well-crafted music. Meanwhile, \u201cBeat Generation Poet Turned Assassin\u201d makes plain the irreverent, pop-culture-focused sense of humor that pervades The Brothers Steve\u2019s music. The song itself is characterized by some high-energy playing, distorted power chords, insistent bass, even more hand claps and an infectious chorus that will have you singing along. It may well be the strongest cut on the record.<\/p>\n The Brothers Steve head in a very different direction for #1<\/i>\u2019s album closer, \u201cSunlight.\u201d The Unplugged<\/i>-style song is characterized by a gentle lead vocal, plenty of acoustic guitar, a lovely bit of electric piano and close vocal harmonies. It\u2019s a bit out of place on this collection of uptempo rockers, but it makes the important point that The Brothers Steve have talent and versatility to burn.<\/p>\n From Big Stir Records, the vinyl release of <\/i>#1<\/i> features an eye-popping op-art sleeve and an even more impressive blue-splatter vinyl pressing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Following a proud rock \u2018n\u2019 roll tradition of misleading band names, The Brothers Steve aren\u2019t brothers, and none is named Steve. The L.A.-based band plays its own brand of powerpop, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,55,62,65,73],"tags":[4161,4298],"class_list":["post-19490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-powerpop","category-rawk","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-big-stir-records","tag-the-brothers-steve","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-55-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19492,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19490\/revisions\/19492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}