Hear Here: Little Big League hits a home run
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
The whole “top this” and “best that” thing is only vaguely useful, if not utterly pointless, but listen: This has been one hell of a year for Philly rock. The War on Drugs, Nothing, Bleeding Rainbow, A Sunny Day in Glasgow (they count!), Pattern is Movement. So many bands dropped noteworthy records in this town and, with no Kurt Vile machine to steamroll them, the race for artist of 2014 is too close to call.
The whole “top this” and “best that” thing is only vaguely useful, if not utterly pointless, but listen: This has been one hell of a year for Philly rock. The War on Drugs, Nothing, Bleeding Rainbow, A Sunny Day in Glasgow (they count!), Pattern is Movement. So many bands dropped noteworthy records in this town and, with no Kurt Vile machine to steamroll them, the race for artist of 2014 is too close to call.
So, what the hell, let’s welcome a late contender.
Little Big League’s new record is a beauty. Tropical Jinx, just released on Boston’s Run for Cover label, hits all the sweet spots for the discerning modern rock ’n’ roll listener. The choruses soar, the guitars go solo (sometimes ferociously) when called upon, the melodies stick around with parasitic persistence (in a good way). At the center of it all is Michelle Zauner, whose voice switches from agile to tough to fragile. She’s still capable of the bratty brazenness that defined Little Big League’s first record, 2012’s These Are Good People, but now there are more levels, more tempos and tricks. Just listen to the way her voice cracks and gasps like an ice cube in the heavyhearted first half of “In Air.”
As ever, Zauner’s lyrics can be stunningly sad and dry all at once. “I can’t get you off my mind. I can’t get you off in general,” she quips/sighs on “Boyish.” “At some point you decide if you want to love or be loved more, and I chose wrong,” she shrugs on the title track.
Modern ears may liken this record to ’90s revivalist rockers Speedy Ortiz. For the old heads: It’s reminiscent of Sonny Sixkiller — a bygone Philly band these kids have likely never heard. Neither comparison accounts for the sheer inventiveness of Little Big League’s sound. They’re gritty, witty and somehow tight and untamed at the same time.
This thing ain’t over.
Fri., Nov. 7, 9 p.m., $10, with LVL UP, Tutlie and Spirit of the Beehive, Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684, johnnybrendas.com.
