HOT BAND ALERT: HOUSEHOLD

We may be growing our beards out and listening to Jefferson Airplane a great chunk of the time, but that doesn’t mean the Hedonist Jive isn’t staying on top of the hot young Airplanes of today. HOUSEHOLD, from Brooklyn, are the hottest of our hot band discoveries of the past month. Their debut release “ITEMS” came out just a couple of months ago in both vinyl and digital-download form, and thanks to the magic of the Internet, I just heard about ‘em for the first time this past week. I’d like to get my kudos in early, because these ladies are going to be hot-hot-hot and on every hipster’s dribbling lips a week from now this time.

HOUSEHOLD might or might not be happy to be pigeonholed as “post-punk”, so let’s avoid that and some obvious precedents like The Minutemen, Delta 5, Au Pairs outright. Their 9-song set moves in skittering, forward motion at all times, with propulsive percussion and odd quirks in timing being what makes this thing such a blast to listen to. While insanely frantic in parts, it's also well-rooted in pop & has a light touch when called for. It’s obvious that they’re a band that’s already arrived fully-formed, and once you listen to this debut set you’ll realize there’s no “learning and growing” going on already. Not knowing the pedigree of the three women in the band, and being too lazy to look it up – hey, they could all be in their forties and total veterans of numerous scene wars – they sound young and hungry. “Items” has a smacking, up-front production quality that heightens the tense, wiry sound of the guitar, bass and phenomenal George Hurley-esque drumming here. Overlay a couple of great singers who unite in deliberately imperfect harmony when it makes sense, and yeah, you’ve got one of my favorite records from last year, that I heard this year.

It’s only 3 bucks to download the whole thing. You can afford that.

Download HOUSEHOLD - "Never After"