Austin Sound

Like the early-90’s Pavement-rock genre that the band in part pays homage to, La Snacks have an undeniable air of “cool” that emanates from their otherwise gritty guitar tones. But also like their forefathers, this is a calculated cool, where every seemingly off-the-cuff utterance and lick likely precipitated only from hours of arrangement and endless toiling. It’s a dangerous game, but La Snacks perform the feat with apparent ease, delivering six songs that wholly capture both the enticing 90’s-era “cool” that the band has been molding for some time, but also the more satisfying songwriting prowess of La Snacks.

The album’s leader, “Kristen was a Meteorologist,” which makes reference to Britain’s Neville Chamberlain (famous for his “appeasement” approach to Germany which led to WWII/failed), is La Snacks’ “cool” at its finest: the vocals and guitar play a brilliant melody and countermelody charade, while the equally prominent drums lay into a beat that all but invites you to grab some writing utensils and drum along. La Snacks are at their best when following this simple, but extremely effective layout. Both “A Drink” and “Jackson 88” do just that, but with more guitar, more vocal parts, and overall more energy. On the surface, that’s Newfangled: simple and enjoyable. But it’s hardly as spontaneous as it may seem.

While some of the slower songs sag and lose some of the pent up energy the band harnesses so effectively, it is ultimately the calmer moments of the driving numbers that are most impressive. With many modern bands relying on either gimmicks or all-out melody assaults (typically with eardrum-decimating synthesizers), La Snacks add unmatched dynamic to their music through the seemingly unheard of “Less is More” approach. In “Jackson 88,” for example, we find the band confident enough in their guitar melody to let it hang out unobstructed, spending a good deal of time jamming on that single hook. But when the chorus kicks in, and the guitars flip into arpeggios, the effect is rendered that much more dynamic. Replicate this same process successfully a few more times and you’ve got Newfangled.

For all the band owes to that sense of “cool,” it owes equally as much to simple, intelligent songwriting. La Snacks aren’t far off from the process by which the music industry used to churn out hits in the glory days. What seems misunderstood by many of the band’s peers is that this process never becomes worn: songs may age, whether by time or extensive Top-40 play, but effective song writing will always remain key. La Snacks may use different inputs for the process (i.e. a bit more distortion and lyrics about 1930’s England), but they follow through on classic songwriting in a sorely needed way. The result is Newfangled, and it bears all the signs of its honest inception.

Websites:
http://lasnacks.com
Myspace