Girls Against Boys – THE GHOST LIST EP (Out 29.9.13)
Perhaps it was the fact that esteemed producer and founder member of post hardcore firebrands Girls Against Boys, Eli Janney had engineered James Blunt during the band’s hiatus that drove him back to the double bass expansion unit assault that was his former band. Not so much time to Cruise Yourself as time to check yourself before you wreck yourself. Of course not, but it adds a humorous dimension to a serious noise rock proposition that are back after 11 years away.
Rock & Roll, a young genre itself, is in the grip of a cycle where even the 90s grunge era bands have split and come back. The nostalgia circuit even for bands for whom teenage angst paid off well but are now tired and old. Dinosaur Jr, Pixies, Sebadoh, hey even The Replacements are going concerns. Michael Azzerad wasn’t wrong when he borrowed the Minutemen lyric “Our Band Could Be Your Life” for his tome of the US underground. Girls Against Boys are from the second generation of the Azzerad bands, but they’re back and they’re definitely not through. And on The Ghost List 5 track EP it’s like they’ve never been away. Title tune “It’s A Diamond Life” features some affirming woah-woah vocals which is as happy as this band gets. But I’m sure as hell happy to have them back to soundtrack my own life
Two dueling basses, always their USP are forefronted – the kinetic Eli versus the lithe Johnny Temple. Scott McCloud’s cooler than thou lyrical incisions show he still has the teeth. He has an effortlessly gruff voice that sounds like it was weaned on one too many cigarettes, yet I’m betting those teeth aren’t yellowed. He always had the film star looks. Alexis Fleisig keeps the coupe on the road with his driving rhythm and with the power of a tune like “Let’s Get Killed” it’s easy to see why Girls Against Boys have graced many a soundtrack. It’s chaotic finale recalls a scene from Cronenburg’s Crash
On “Kick” McCloud insists he “still feels the same”, before screeching feedback squalls over synthetic keyboard squelch and that ever present bass, it’s obvious the fire is still burning deep. It’s sombre and it’s brooding, summoning the spirit of old favourite “(I) Don’t Got A Place” and wouldn’t be out of place on the Depeche Mode’s return to form Delta Machine. They don’t quite hit the heady heights of traditional show stopper “Psychic Know How” or the iridescence of “Bulletproof Cupid” but they get close on “60 Is Closer Than 15” they still very much have that Girls Against Boys thing in their inner psyche. Combined with the barfly world weariness of a life lived, it’s dare I say it an even more potent cocktail. 7.7/10
Nick Hutchings
Listen to ‘60 Is Greater Than 15’