PRE, Epic Fits

On their debut album, Epic Fits, PRE plays an abrasive strain of noise-rock that nonetheless still rocks. They play songs in post-Daydream Nation fashion, but with the energy of a hardcore band. The band uses two basses in addition to guitar, drums, and a woman having a fit — they use the extra bass as another source of noise than to hold down a groove. (Is it fair for a band to have two bass players, when so many bands today can’t even get one?)

Despite the screaming, some of the songs are almost catchy in an odd sort of way. The best songs here have a minimal melody that complements the noise from the instruments without completely letting go of it either. “I Met Her in the Bin” finds just enough of a melody to carry it without making it too pretty, and “Know Yr Teachers” is the noise rock-equivalent of a Loretta Lynn-Montgomery Gentry duet.

As a result of the screaming, the words of the songs are completely unintelligible. All you really know about the songs are the titles, but even those don’t say anything in particular – there’s absolutely no theme among titles such as “Ace Cock,” “Nope Fun,” and “Know Yr Teachers.” The only thing you get from the vocal is that the singer is really pissed off. But that’s all you really need on songs like these, anyway.

A number of songs here work well. The band comes up with some interesting sounds and riffs to complement the singing. But because the songs are mostly the same tempo, unfortunately, they start to sound the same. The melodies are enough to make the better songs go, but not quite enough to drive the songs on their own. If they can come up with way of varying the sound, they might have an actual album, rather than a collection of songs.