The Grace Of A VHS Tracker

Chime Oblivion “Kiss Her or Be Her”

You may not know David Barbarossa by name, but if you’ve ever heard the classics by Bow Wow Wow or Adam and the Ants, you’d immediately recognize his drumming style right away on “Kiss Her or Be Her.” It’s a very distinctive feel – boppy but busy with fills, both tribal and urban, tumbling yet graceful. The chaotic and up tempo sound fits perfectly with the gnarly, tightly wound guitar parts by Osees’ leader John Dwyer and H.L. Nelly’s manic vocal. She’s singing about a confusing crush that’s both exasperating and exciting – is this actual lust, or just fascination? What is she supposed to do with this feeling? It all clicks together to sound a lot like The Slits, and you can sorta feel the ghost of Ari Up looking down from the heavens like “just go kiss her already!”

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Neggy Gemmy “Mysterious Girl”

“Mysterious Girl” has a wonderful weightlessness to it, as though all the trebly elements are floating in discrete layers high above the bass line. It evokes the lightheaded sensation of getting too high, the butterflies feeling of having a new crush, the loose physicality of being utterly carefree and in the moment. The lyrics are basically another “kiss her or be her?” scenario, with Lindsey French getting lost in a reverie after spotting a beautiful and stylish woman on the street. She fills in some of the blanks of her existence, but only in the most romanticized ways – she smells like lilac, she sees through you, she’s only going to break your heart. You get the sense that it would be better for this girl to remain mysterious, unknowable, and untouchably perfect in her mind. She’s turned her into a piece of art.

Buy it from Bandcamp.