Oxford Collapse, Remember the Night Parties

Not to be confused with the Oxford Set (from Los Angeles, who rock), the Oxford Collapse (from Brooklyn) are hard to peg — but they’re good. Not as good as Pitchfork proclaims them to be, no, but they still deserve to be checked out. After a few listens, the most obvious comparisons I can think of are mid-’90s alterna-rock such as Slint, Inch, Rust, and Sponge. Shit, the second-to-last song (“Forgot to Write”) sounds like it could have been an early version of Sponge’s “Molly (Sixteen Candles).”

The CD artwork even busts out a nostalgic pictorial of a bunch of guys dicking around in someone’s backyard. It’s like the guys in the artwork could’ve been your older cousins who first introduced you to all those ’90s bands, and Oxford Collapse are taking you back with the sounds, back to before shit got all disco-punk. Yeah, I have no idea what I’m talking about, but if you want to impress your friends with the best new Sub Pop release, fire up the Oxford Collapse.