Welcome to another Mixed Bag Review!! I can’t believe I’ve done 15 of these already!! anyway if you have read these reviews before or have looked at the homepage, then you know the drill. For this one I have selected five great bands so let’s take a look……..
Plush/Plush- so this was a band that I was lucky enough to see open for The Warning back in 2023 and I must say they were pretty good. This is another band comprised of all young ladies and like a lot of all girl bands, they are very talented. Now this album has sort of a 90 hard rock meets alt rock sound and it is quite good. Now this doesn’t reinvent the wheel or anything like that but it’s definitely worth a listen if you’re a fan of bands like The Warning or The Anti-Groupies. I’ll give it 8/10
Standouts: Athena, Better Off Alone, Walk Away
Institute/Distort Yourself- now I’m pretty sure when I first started doing Mixed Bag Reviews, this was one of the first albums I had put on the chopping block. I had searched all of the archives and all of the past reviews that I had written and I just couldn’t find it. Plus, this gives me an excuse to listen to the album again. Now this was supposed to be the fifth Bush album and it most definitely feels that way. That’s quite honestly the best way I can sum up this album is that it feels like the follow up to the Golden State album. In fact, if you really wanted to do a deep dive of Bush’s albums, you could actually factor this one in. Another really cool thing about this record is that it was produced by Page Hamilton of Helmet and Chris Traynor (who was Helmet’s guitar player and played on this album) would become the bands guitar player. This is definitely one of those records that I would say is essential listening and I have no choice but to give it a 9.5/10.
Standouts: When Animals Attack, Bulletproof Skin, S.S.T.
Wet Leg/Wet Leg/Moisturizer- now this band has been on my social media algorithms for the last couple of weeks so I decided to check them out. If you’re into Indie rock that you’re definitely going to like this band. If you’re into bands like Kings of Leon or White Stripes you’ll really like this band. This was more of a curiosity listen and while I didn’t dislike what I heard, neither album really did much for me. Both albums are just OK. The self titled album definitely has that indie alternative rock sound and the second album Moisturizer is more of the same. I would say if there’s any sort of difference between the two albums is that the second albums production is slightly better but other than that, there’s not a big difference between the two. I’ll give both albums 7/10.
Standouts: Wet Dream, Chaise Lounge, Catch These Fists
+44/When Your Heart Stops Beating- for those unfamiliar with this band, it’s Travis Barker and Mark Hoppus from Blink-182, Shane Gallagher from The Nervous Return on lead guitar, and Craig Fairbaugh of Mercy Killers on rhythm guitar. Much like Institute, this is one of those in between albums. When Your Heart Stops Beating was recorded after Blink’s 2003 self titled album and while this album does have a very Blink “flavor,” it definitely has a lot of New Wave. I would even venture to say that you could hear some of this album on the previous Blink-182 record. Again you could listen to that self titled record and add this one into the mix. It is too bad. They didn’t make another record, but you never know. I’ll go ahead and give this record 9/10.
Standouts: Lycanthrope, When Your Heart Stops Beating, Cliff Diving
Insect Warfare/World Extermination- out of all the albums in this review, this is sort of the oddball of the bunch. There are two types of metal sub genres one has to be in the mood for those being black metal and grindcore. Insect Warfare is of the latter and I first heard of this band from the book Choosing Death: The Improbable History Of Death Metal And Grindcore and thought that this is a band with a really cool name. But really it’s sort of like if you’ve heard one grindcore band then you’ve heard them all and this band is no different. I will say that there are 20 songs on this record and it clocks in at 22 minutes so it’s a really short album. Again this is a band you really have to be in the mood to listen to and I’ll give the album 7.5/10
Standouts: Oxygen Corrosion, Decontamination, Manipulator
Definitely check out these five bands and their respective albums. All of them are great and bring something exciting to the table. Whether you’re in the mood for indie alternative, new wave meets pop rock, or even grindcore, all of these bands and albums are worth a listen.
Sinister Reviews 