Purling Hiss
★★★★
Drag On Girard
DRAG CITY. CD/DL/LP
The unsung kings of Philly’s garage-rock freak scene!
Had Purling Hiss slunk out of the US underground circa 1986, there’s a fair chance this band could have been your life. Instead, Mike Polizze’s Philly rockers are more of a footnote in their city’s musical history: compadres of Kurt Vile and The War On Drugs; direct descendants of local noise lords Birds Of Maya. Their seventh album proves how unfair all this is, being essentially the most enjoyable Dinosaur Jr album you’ve never heard. Polizze’s bubblegum melodies cut through the fuzz (Out The Door is a cracker), while Baby ups those ’80s bona fides by echoing Pixies’ Wave Of Mutilation. And if you ever wanted Dinosaur Jr to be more like Crazy Horse – or, indeed, Crazy Horse to be more like Dinosaur Jr – closing jams Drag On Girard and Shining Gilded Boulevard will hit a particularly gonzoid sweet spot.