photo by Stevie George; photo courtesy of Knyvet
EP Review of Something Sneaky: Old Notes
Distorted, grungy, heavy garage rock. Or maybe basement rock. Indeed, Old Notes, the newest EP from Something Sneaky, is the sort of raw rock ‘n roll you’d expect to hear in an unfinished basement live music venue in a college town.
Justin Iacovino (vocals, guitars, keyboards) is joined in Something Sneaky by Jeremy Iacovino (drums), Chris Casserly (bass), and Jesse George (guitars). Old Notes is the band’s first long-form recording since its 2017 release Pictures.
artwork by Dan Nelligan and Cal Ciarcia; image courtesy of Knyvet
The song with the most crossover potential – the one most likely to appeal to listeners beyond the band’s core noisy, raw, kinda punky alt-rock core – is album opener “Stevie’s Here.” From its strumming open to its its catchy repeated guitar hooks, “ooh-ooh” parts, mainstream alt-rock tempo changes, and only moderately distorted jangly guitar bridge, “Stevie’s Here” is stylistically related to a lot of indie rock hits. The rest of the album doesn’t combine all those pieces the way the album-opener does.
However, the rest of the songs do cohesively complete and excellent 5-song beginning-to-end listen. Indeed, that’s not to suggest the other songs are similar to each other. Far from it, in fact, as stylistic differences give each of the tracks on this EP a very different feel.
“Hole Foods” is likely to be a club favorite, both live for Something Sneaky and as an ideal choice for clubs’ between-bands playlists. The song thumps along with its heavy, almost grungy bass and drums-driven rhythm. The vocals and song structure take what seem like some engaging aural detours before returning to the forcefully advancing primary rhythm. Again, concertgoers are going to dig this song; and, it’s the sort of energy-maintaining song that would keep rock crowds buzzing when the recording is played between sets of multi-act concerts. (I honestly don’t think I’ve ever recommended a song for that purpose before.)
photo by Stevie George; photo courtesy of Knyvet
As for the rest of the EP, “Gold Notes” is more of a swaying wailer. And I should point out that I didn’t dub Something Sneaky’s style “basement rock” just because of the “I’m trapped in a basement” lyric in “Gold Notes.” In fact, I thought of the phrase before I noticed the lyric, which made it fun to discover. “Depressure,” next, is a slow, aptly-entitled, depressive-instrumented, slow moody number. And album-closer “Stoner Kids” is a six-minute epic that maintains the same rhythm throughout but builds in noise as the song advances through its second half. I mean, yeah there are jangles and nuances I could mention, but I’ll let you discover those for yourselves as you listen to the very cool, mind-numbing cacophony until it closes with a buzz.
Regardless, everyone needs to hear “Stevie’s Here.” And the rest of the album? If this is your brand of musical noise, you’ll dig it from the get-go. Even if it’s not quite your usually-preferred rock sub-style, give it a few listens. As you begin to hear the nuances, the other songs may grow on you, too, as they did on me.
