Say Yes to Love
"Since when do we say yes to love?" Meredith Graves yells halfway through her band's savagely awesome debut LP. These art-punk kids hail from Syracuse, New York, previously renowned for great bands like, well, none ever. But they rage with an emotional urgency that recalls Hüsker Dü or early Sleater-Kinney. Say Yes to Love is a heart-punch of an album – eight songs, 23 minutes – where the words are mostly buried under guitar feedback and synth squeals. Yet the raw passion comes across loud and clear. "Interference Fits" builds around a Pavement-like guitar lick, with Graves snarling her lines until all the emotion spills over into a joyous noise-rave finale. Since when do we say yes to love? Since now.