Bass Drum Of Death
Self-Titled
Innovative Leisure
Street: 06.23
Bass Drum Of Death = Happy Birthday + Wavves + Cheap Time
When a single overridden guitar chord introduces the 10-second snare-drum-roll opening “I Wanna Be Forgotten” (the first track), the endless 15-second snare-intro of Cheap Time’s “Living In The Past” comes to mind.  I don’t know if it’s due to cutting time or adding guitar, but Bass Drum Of Death killed it. The pace steps up with the first cymbal crash and slows only for “Such A Bore,” a jam with ’60s-era strumming and thick Shangri-Las-style bass drum. The scratchy harmonies that John Barrett sings behind his lead vocals on the choruses echo as if recorded in a public bathroom, and the delicious melodies linger in my mind longer than the foul stench of that same public loo. The rhythm section seems to be speeding up throughout the psychedelic guitar breakdown of “Shattered Me”—a welcome dynamic that finds its way into many of the remaining songs. –Steve Richardson