Super Apes

***Kill The Humans, is 40 minutes of melodic "indie" rock, veering into sludgy riffs a la, the mid nineties, Northwest. Song writer, Michael Carlson's collaboration with co-producer Brian Hamilton, of Fleshies infamy, takes the listener on a journey through themes of isolation, ambition, and strained relations. This debut album, garnering praise from West Coast rags and club audiences, was partially recorded in a remaining home studio originally occupied by the Grateful Dead. Mixing genres like 90's punk swagger and early power pop, it is characterized by heart-on-sleeve anthemic choruses without pretense, and includes sound clips that bring to mind the band Hickey.

Super Apes are laconic and deliberate, scuzzy and sweet. They’re doing a kind of raw, wonky, grimy hybrid of power pop and hard rock that scans as both ’90s and timeless, sometimes sounding like Pavement-ized West Coast punk, sometimes like a dive bar residency version of Weezer, sometimes like both Motörhead and The Pastels are never far from their thoughts. The dynamic range is important—Kill the Humans moves from gnarly to wistful to points in-between casually and comfortably, and the band’s heartaches and disappointments and overall frustrations are underplayed, making them twice as potent. Fried melodies, ragged glory—it’s all here.