Brilliant Colors – Never Mine 7″ (2010)

SLUMBERLAND San Francisco’s Brilliant Colors have staked-out a unique spot in the indie music landscape. Inspired in equal parts by post-punk DIY fervor and the spiky pop of C86 and early Flying Nun/Creation label output, they hearken back to a time when the best tunes came out on 7″ singles and weekends were spent digging through the stacks at your favorite local record shop. Their 2009 album, Introducing, is one of the finest debuts in recent memory, combining guitar buzz with dreamy melodies and rushing rhythms into some dream combination of The Dils and Shop Assistants.

Now the band is back with their first new recordings since that great album, and boy are they winners. “Never Mine” is simply 1:49 of punk-pop perfection, singer/guitarist Jess Scott’s spare riff underpinned by Diane Anastasio’s steady thump and Michelle Hill’s busy, melodic bassline. It’s Brilliant Colors in a nutshell: crunchy garage punk played with total purposefulness, leavened by an instinctive pop sense. On the flip side the pace picks up for “Kissing’s Easy”: all rolling snares and frantic guitar strum and Jess’ echoey vocal sass. Like all the best classic punk tunes it’s over just a little too soon, leaving you no option but to turn the record over and play it all over again.

Recorded with DIY simplicity by Ty Segall, who knows a bit about garage pop himself, the minimal sound fits the bands tune like a glove. This great single hones Brilliant Colors’ spiky, angular crash-pop and points to a very interesting 2010 for the band.

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My Rate: 7/10