Married couple Max and Leslie create really unique blends of garage rock, noise rock, shoegaze, and drone metal that is sometimes compared to Earth or My Bloody Valentine (although I think that one's a stretch). Their discography is pretty diverse, but Grandeur of Hair is definitely my preferred record of theirs. It's primitive, beat heavy, chorused distortion guitar with a very alluring and emotional vocalist.
The first section of Own a Car acts as a gatekeeper, inviting its guests in, as long as they can handle the stagnant gurgling of the present guitar. Then a deeper, much more dynamic line of noise billows, creating something too slow to bang your head to but too fast to simply relax to. Leslie's vocals on this album come forward in a way that make it seem as though they were always there, like you're hearing her scream and bolster her lungs as if she's combating the waves of noise covering her. Most of the lyrics are indiscernible but her delivery has feeling and melody.
One of the definite strengths this thing has is its contrast, such as the cover portrays: when looking at the album art from far away it seems like the detail is elaborate and deliberate, while looking closely reveals that it is a scrawled and blotchy mess. On one of my favorite tracks, Overnight, this deadly churning contrast presents itself the most apparently. The first half of the song is primal with blown out kick drums, then suddenly out of the lush and dense warmth comes a melody. It doesn't feel gimmicky either, like they're pulling this opposites thing as a cheap trick, it feels genuine and natural as if the catchy harmonies were part of the song all along.
If you enjoy noise acts like Yellow Swans or Lightning Bolt, this thing incorporates both dense drone and explosive, aggressive rock/metal live playing that results in one of my favorite experiences in music.
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