Check 'em out if they're your thing

So a while back I was trollin' eBay looking for posters (sweet callback to the previous post, by the way. I know, thank you) and there was only one Shellac poster. I didn't buy it because it was ugly like a butt but (Protip: If your writing includes the phrase "butt but" you are the tits) below "Shellac" on the poster was the word "Pinebender." If a band was good enough that Shellac toured with them, I figured they were worth investigation.

So a few minutes of research told me Pinebender was a band (From my hometown of Wilmette [aka "Thrillmette"] no less!) that played slow, heavy math/post/whatever-rock. Not very original but there are worse genres.

I downloaded their record The High Price of Living Too Long with a Single Dream (the title of which I have to believe is inspired by The Great Gatsby, so, you know, bonus points) off of iTunes on a whim. And it isn't bad at all.

However, it's not an immortal, 5-star classic, either. This isn't going to change the minds of anyone who thinks loud, droning, down-tempo songs are musical NyQuil. The lead singer's voice is nothing to write home about either. Unless it's in a letter home where you, like, are in the 1800s and you have to tell your parents that your wife Clarabelle died from the typhoid, and that, like, a week earlier, your would-be child Caleb came out stillborn. In which case you might as well throw it in. But honestly it's very solid for what it is. It's pretty loud, reasonably hypnotic, non-pretentious, and the songs are good. If really slow Dinosaur Jr. or less crystalline Slint sound like things you would enjoy, check them out. They're not "big" and they deserve to be a lot bigger. Even if only one of the people who read this listen to them, that's still one more person listening to them.

Since I bought the record on iTunes I can't upload it and put it here because of Apple's jackassery. It's only 8 bucks on iTunes, though, and I think most of you can swing that. Just give them a chance.