Summer Cannibals - No Makeup

Hailing from the place where young people go to retire, Summer Cannibals debut No Makeup is a tale of the tape declaration of their humble beginnings and future potential. It’s what you’d like most bands consider when unleashing their first record, but only if they’ve got the talent to do so.

There are no window dressings with Summer Cannibals blast of 10 songs, all of which are as catchy as they are unadorned. The band lists themselves as the producer, and the additional duties only seemed to require them to set up a few microphones, hit “record” button immediately before the song begins and then “stop” after they were done.

This would be an issue with most hometown units, I suppose, most of which would probably relish the added assistance of overdubs, retakes and punch-ins. But Summer Cannibals are a bit better than your local upstarts-if not exactly technically proficient, then at least they’re working with an attractive blend of native garage and a pretty exclusive group of performers who were able to translate such humble origins into a larger audience.

You'll immediate think of The Breeders or Yeah Yeah Yeahs the moment you hit play, but it's not until vocalist Jessica Bourdreaux enters the mix before there's no question of it. For some, that may be too lazy of a connection, but for me all I needed to remember was how Kim Deal or Karen O didn't break any new ground at first either. And that's exactly where we are with Summer Cannibals: square one

You'll wish for a punchier mix and a more original blueprint perhaps, but there is nothing wrong with No Makeup's direction because it leaves the band with very wide-open possibilities.

They've got the Spirit of '91 down pat. Now lets see if they can work themselves out of the shirts that wear those influences so proudly on its sleeves