PUSH-PULL – Between Noise And The Indians

This album has a serious DIY sound and feel. Which doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but in this case sorta is. The Push-Pull sound is a patchwork of influences with no discernible heart. When Joey and Dee Dee were pounding out walls of noise, there was something distinctly Ramones about the whole enterprise. It was simple and loud, but it was recognizably theirs. “Between Noise” sounds like a lot of other things you’ve heard before. Heard before and enjoyed more. Early Soul Asylum, Franz Ferdinand, or Gomez all come to mind as being in the same hemisphere of sound.

The Push-Pull vocals are a little brash, a little grating, but never exactly fired up. Similarly, the lead guitar grinds plenty, but somehow doesn’t manage to carve anything up. In the end, for the “in-your-face” quality Push-Pull seem to be shooting for, the sound is too tailored and clean to buy into. You don’t see young punks slapping this together in a rundown garage so much as manufacturing it on their laptops to sound like they slapped it together in a rundown garage. I reserve all judgment until I could hear them live, but the album itself is too sterile to do anything for me.

(Joyful Noise Recordings, PO Box 20109, Indianapolis, IN 46220)