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best of active days
driving themes • paradeco records • 2006

Good old fashioned '90s-style indie rock is alive and well in the bedroom, garage, and basement studios of America. Best of Active Days is a home-recording project of one guy, Seattle's Matt Martin, but he goes for a full-band sound on these confident and hard-driving songs. There's melody and post-punk yelping in equal measure. For my money the album peaks in the middle, starting with "DJ's of the Middle East." The intertwining instruments and vocal lines of "Palms of Terror" show a definite Pinback influence. The acoustic-based "Similar in Function" is rhythmic and wordy like a Modest Mouse song, and features muted trumpet. "Sinuous" calls to mind a faster-paced, more aggressive Butterglory, and Martin cracks out some good guitar leads. The rest of the album is a little hit-and-miss, generally either too abrasive or not quite gelling, but still overall a cut above the lion's share of home-recorded fare, and, although these recordings are lo-fi, they're without fault in spirit and execution. (mike.09.06)

copacetic zine