Record Label: Eyeball Records
Genre: Indie
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link

Being from Brooklyn and maybe trying to fit in, The Velocet start their album off with the hi-hat-heavy hipster-dance tune “Chinatown.” But that sound only resurfaces sporadically and half-heartedly on the rest of the album; their sound is more largely cut from post-punk and progressive, melodic indie. Even within the couple of disco-punk tunes, there is something heavy and straining about the lyrics and vocals that is at odds with the attempted Williamsburg hipsterism.

Clearly, this isn’t a band that wants to be a mindless clone of Bloc Party, who are mindless to begin with. Yet I wonder why they try to tap into this simple and swaggering sound in the first place, most blatantly on their opener. In any case, their prog songwriting, post-punk distortion and bleak tone set them apart from the simplistic and sleazy dance/garage sound and put them solidly in a more thoughtful camp of indie rock. That may be a downer for your mussy-haired, heroin chic and skinny tie set, but it’s a heck of a lot more real and interesting.

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