Attic Salt are a new band on me, and Get Wise is their second album. I first encountered them when we shared the video for “Mud” a few weeks ago, and jumped at the chance to listen to more of their pop punk antics.
There’s no hiding that I’m a huge Bowling For Soup fan, and Attic Salt are very much from the same mould. A four-piece who have a cracking bass rhythm to their sound, catchy guitars and lyrics about life in general. The major difference is the vocals from Attic Salt are often somewhat more feminine courtesy of front lady Alyssa Currie who strums guitar while waxing lyrical about relationships and other shitty stuff. However, the selling point for the band is that she shares voicebox duties with co-guitarist Andy Harmon.
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In an attempt to confuse the listener, Get Wise opens with the short and sweet “Last Song”. A nice little ditty it perfectly captures the band’s up-tempo sound and attitude, led by Ms Currie. Mr Harmon gets in on the act with the almost as short “Beautiful Lies”. It’s as if these two songs are set up as tasters so you know what the two singers sound like. Thing is, all of the songs on the album are short, reminiscent of Andrew WK’s better material. Long enough to burrow into your head, short enough to leave you wanting more. Only two of them break the three minute barrier, which makes me wonder how the band could manage a 90 minute live set without engaging in a lot of audience interaction!
“Mud” was a great choice for a lead single, an acoustic-led number with a great sense of maudlin humour. “Washington Street” flings you in the other direction, being far more in-your-face and upbeat. It’s this mixture of styles that really sells Attic Salt to me. They extend to all corners of the pop punk range, nailing each to their preppy flagpole. There are some brilliant little songs on here that you can really bop to – “MOD” and “Souvenir”, for example. And the slower numbers such as “Fool 4 U” aren’t half bad either.
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It’s always good to discover a new band, especially one who are really just setting out on their journey. I really hope Get Wise does well enough that we see Attic Salt back with their allegedly less-difficult third album in the months to come!
Get Wise is out on September 25th
