My First Earthquake: Friction
Having birthed such bands as Beulah, The Dodos, and Imperial Teen, it is no wonder San Francisco has a renowned indie pop scene. That is the scene which has given us My First Earthquake. The band’s sophomore release is Friction.
My First Earthquake is an interesting band because they do not have a guitar player. Instead the band relies on synthesizers to take the place of the guitar. Despite the lack of a major rock instrument, Friction shows the band’s versatility.
On songs like “Whitewalled”, the band sounds a little like the Ting Tings with lead singer, Rebecca Bortman basically talking over dancey music. On the track, the synthesizers replace the Ting Tings’ guitars.
On tracks like “Ok K”, the synths are used a bit differently. “Ok K” reminds me of LCD Soundsystem with the synthesizers working in more of a traditional manner in dance music.
No matter what the synthesizers are doing on Friction, it works for the band. Where the band generally fails is the lyrical content. “Enya Got Nothing” is a completely painful listen about a love/hate relationship with Enya and her music. “Low Blow” sounds promising musically before the vocals kick in which start with the line “I got a thing for you/you greasy spatula” and then the honeymoon is over.
Generally, I am not the kind of critic that lets bad lyrics ruin what is supposed to be a party but when lyrics are this bad it is hard to ignore. Friction would be a perfectly acceptable but because of the lyrics, the album ends up being mediocre to bad.
Rating: 5.3/10
MP3: My First Earthquake “Ok K”
Buy: iTunes or Amazon
My First Earthquake: Friction
