The Soft Pack

I was flipping through MOJO magazine yesterday while picking up my semi-weekly fix of a a used CD or two at my neighborhood record store, and I saw a review of The Soft Pack. I had heard of them last year via some other UK website and had made a mental note to get around to checking them out. You'd think this was some new Brit band, but they're actually based in San Diego. It's not the first time an American band got its foothold in the UK before returning home (Strokes, Hendrix). My attention was also piqued due to their mention of The Modern Lovers. I have a Pavlovian compulsion to check out anyone compared to them or The Feelies.

I downloaded their EP The Muslims released last year, and previewed the upcoming self-titled album to be released on Kemado on February 2nd. The band were originally named The Muslims, but didn't have the cajones and patience to put up with the questions, comments and insults it inspired. Anyway, The Modern Lovers comparison was way off, at least on the new album. The EP does have a more rough, spare post-Velvets jangle on a couple songs like "On My Time" that has some passing resemblence to Jonathon Richman's first band. But the band mostly exists on the garage noir plane, like The Flaming Stars. This did not disappoint me in the least, as I love that sort of sound.

The question is which side of the fine line will The Soft Pack fall on? They could easily toil in obscurity like The Flaming Stars and become fondly remembered but somewhat dated garage revivalists like Hoodoo Gurus, The Lyres and the Lime Spiders. The abundance of needlesharp hooks on exactly 70% of the album (all but tracks 7-9, which are still solid), however, suggests they might have created a minor classic, along the lines of The Dream Syndicate's The Days Of Wine And Roses, or even Is This It. It doesn't hurt that they contributed to Phoenix's remix album and opened for them along with many other high profile bands last year.

Time will tell, but for now this will stay at the top of my playlist and help take the edge off the winter alongside Vampire Weekend and Good Shoes. After some record release shows in California, they will return to the UK to whip the Brits into even more of a frenzy. With the hype machine at full throttle, I hope to see their show when they return to battle the backlash. I can already anticipate the tired criticisms, but they'll be sure do well regardless.

NYT Review: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/arts/music/20softs.html
What I wrote here with song & video: http://mog.com/fastnbulbous/blog/1718541

i like this band

yeah this album is cool

it is what it is & it's a fun 45 mins

pretty surprised if this is the first thread on them. hype's really died down a huge amount for them a lot since end of 08/start of 09 hasn't it?

the hype has died down over the last three weeks?

I like them a lot, too. 'Minor classic' could be right - not mindblowingly great, but really really good pretty much always. "Parasites" is my personal favorite, hopefully they go more in that direction in the future.

To: j0rdan S:
From: plaxico (I know, right?)
CC:

check yr calender

ha, whoops \(o_O)/

there was tons and tons of hype when they were the muslims and playing a neverending run shows. but from what i've seen the album seems to be slipping out without much big fanfare now that they're signed.

"beside myself" and "extinction" from the muslims ep are great. none of the songs from the album i've heard do much for me. was hoping they would do more kiwi sounding stuff like beside myself.

also love the video for extinction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMF5A2oMDeE

Regarding hype, I suppose a year ago some people still had that thrill of discovering a new band no one else knew about. Then they released the EP that was rough and good but didn't make any waves on year-end lists or anything. I'm sure if they had a well-oiled publicity machine sponsored by a RCA/BMG/Beggars Group, there would be more press. Things should pick up next month.

i like this record! good non-tacky punk/garage/indie with an ear for a tune. also kind of lol to me how they're from san diego and the singer does a damn near perfect rick froberg impression.

ultimately, im a little disappointed at the soft pack -- their MUSLIMS EP was pretty good, and i remember liking a couple of the songs on the 12" from late last year, but i cant really remember any of the songs, and i havent had the urge to play it much. i guess theyre destined to be about as good and about as popular as vampire weekend. and about as generic.

They'd be really good with a singer who wasn't completely monotone.

the first three songs on this album are great, too bad the rest of it's a snooze. and it's weird because it's not like the style changes at all, the songs just suddenly get boring.

jennifer kelly (dusted) rates this the best album of the year

I’m still not sure why I love this album so much. It is quite straightforwardly a guitar rock record, with standard instrumentation (two guitars, bass, drums) and short, catchy songs. It’s the kind of record that no one’s supposed to make anymore — and in any case, no one’s supposed to care about — but it stayed in the player all year long and gave endless fizzy joy every time it came on. “Pull Out” is, hands down, the song of the year for me. The bassline alone, coming in at the very start, is enough to elicit a smile and a rightward turn of the volume knob. I caught on, about halfway through the year, that this song wasn’t about what I thought it was, but rather about California secession, and it made no difference at all to how I felt about it.

http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/945

i don't know. saw these guys when they were still the muslims opening for the nightmarchers. they seemed a little bored by what they were doing

there's a weird ballsiness that comes from saying a deliberately unambitious record is your personal album of the year.

jennifer kelly (dusted) rates this the best album of the year

we talked about this on the end-of-year-list thread but she is not rating it as "the best album of the year" but "the album that impacted her most this year" or something like that.

"Dusted’s prolific Jennifer Kelly counts down her favorite 10 records of the year."

ha well that's just bad/inaccurate editorial writing probably

It's all kind of the same thing, though, right? Best/favorite/most impact? More or less?

I like this a lot (not my personal favorite, not even top 20 probably) but I don't think it tapers off that dramatically.

yeah it's pretty even throughout and i don't think it'll be in my top 20

It's all kind of the same thing, though, right? Best/favorite/most impact? More or less?

― Zsa Zsa Gay Bar (jaymc), Tuesday, December 14, 2010 7:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

eh don't want want to get into this too much but it was the author's distinction, not mine (but I don't think they're the same thing)

this album was hyped all over the place and never seemed to take off. Its ok in parts, otherwise a snoozer.

i have such a crush on the singer/extinction video.

loved these guys as the muslims, or rather liked them in a momentary and somewhat overexcited fashion, mostly based on two songs: "extinction" and "parasites". "extinction" reminds me of a seemingly defunct thread of aussie/kiwi power pop, the line that connects the hoodoo gurus to garageland and then seems to taper off (?). "parasites" is tougher, clangier, with an intoxicating, machine-like ferocity in the rhythm guitar. reminds me, oddly enough, of another australian band, the eddy current suppression ring, at their rawest.

hated the name change, not that i begrudged them the necessity, but "the soft pack" just sucks. limp, bland, uninspiring on every level. and when i finally made time to see them play, after the rechristening, they bored me to death. the guitar player's great, but he's the only interesting thing about the band, and the singer's monotone sneering gets old in the space of 10 minutes. i felt like i was watching a commercial for something i wouldn't ever buy.

I saw them earlier in the year too, and they have some work to do on their live show for sure. But whenever I'm listening to my 2010 playlist on random, I always snap to attention when any of their songs come up.