Taint Misbehavin'

Secret Life Of Painters "On Aquarium Grass"

Secret Life Of Painters "Meet The Speechless"

Look, it's not like I always just give good reviews to bands who are friends of mine. It just so happens that all my friends are incredibly talented musicians. Take Pheonix's Secret Life Of Painters for instance. These lads and I have one major thing in common, our fanatic love for Bob Pollard & GBV. To a lesser extent I'd say we also share a love of early R.E.M. records, which of course Bob Pollard did back in the day too. So you see it's all come full circle.

Secret Life of Painters play rock music. It's that simple. But rather than lyrics with the words "baby" or "lovin" (except for their bone chilling cover of "Baby I Need Your Lovin") they choose to explore more abstract lyrical terrains. Taking a cue from GBV's Box era recordings like Sandbox and Same Place The Fly Got Smashed, SLP is self admittedly lo-fi, but songs like these deserve no other such treatment. It's rock at it's proudest moment, performed by people who have passion for it and choose to cast all bullshit aside.

The last time I saw all of SLP together was the last time GBV final Los Angeles gig. It's been far too long. These boys need to get their ass in a van and shoot their rock milk all over the youth of America. Sorry. I guess that last metaphor was a little gross.

SLP Myspace

SLP website