We promise this is the last time we're going to talk about this band in the context of them also doing other stuff with music besides making it (writing about it), but it's still worth mentioning. Writing about music is no longer the extremely lucrative industry it used to be (everyone knows Lester Bangs was paid $60,000,0000sgg453t600 dollars per word, but it was downhill from there), and maybe that contributes to the restlessness of those that do it, or maybe sometimes you just have a good idea of what kind of music you want to make, and no one's doing it so you just go and do it yourself. That's what Mr. Dream manage to pull off. Putting the weight of a collective understanding of SO MUCH MUSIC from the last however many years square in the center of their backs (or like one collective giant band back), the band manages to coax huge choruses out of papercut thin riffs and guitars that sound like old chainsaws. There's obviously a precedent here—Big Black etc etc etc—but that's the kind of circular referencing it'd be cool to avoid. Instead, Mr. Dream, and specifically the title track "Trash Hit," bring to mind a vision of not-too-long-ago New York, when it seemed like every band was a little harsher, a little less willing to cloak their sound behind comforting effects. It also makes us want to hang in Manhattan a lot more than we actually do, but that's a whole other thing. Mr. Dream's Trash Hit is out March first.
Download: Mr. Dream, "Trash Hit"