#24 - Cheap Girls - Famous Graves

Cheap Girls - Famous Graves

Xtra Mile, 2014

There are a few albums on this list that are here by virtue of just being damn solid records. Not every album has to reinvent the wheel, upend a band’s sound, or innovate, and I feel like it’s important to remember that in a culture that is so saturated with stuff to consume, all of it fighting for your attention. Fortunately, since music requires so much less time investment to know if something is good opposed to a book, movie, or TV show, it’s easy to try out a lot of stuff. That’s how Cheap Girls Famous Graves ended up as one of my most listened to albums of the decade. I just never stopped playing this album, and it’s one I still like to put on when I need something to fill a silent void. There’s nothing fancy about this album. It’s pure indie rock with power pop leanings that I love by virtue of the list of bands they’ve been on tour with (The Hold Steady, Against Me!, AJJ, Joyce Manor, you can see why I like these guys). Famous Graves is a rock solid record, and it’s a shame it proved to be the band’s last as they split in 2017. Sometimes a band only gets 30 seconds to convince me that I should continue listening to them, and with Cheap Girls I needed all of 10 seconds to fully commit to the album. The opening to “Slow Nod” is my kind of music. Better yet, one of my favorite songs--the bonus track “7-8 Years”--didn’t even make the album! And that’s a crying shame because the lyric “So kick me in the kidneys really hard/ I’m gonna write my name in blood in the backyard” is an absolute killer.

Gut Feeling: Cheap Girls - Famous Graves

Cheap Girls – Famous Graves

Xtra Mile, 2014

Fuck. How is this this bands FOURTH album and I’ve never heard of them til now? So it goes. Better late than never. These Michiganders play the sort of 90s alt-rock inspired indie rock that fuels my days. Their sound can actually be deduced from the bands they’ve spent time touring with (The Hold Steady Against Me!, Bouncing Souls, Lemuria, and Andrew Jackson Jihad) with a handful of J. Mascis vocals thrown in and the amps pushed past their breaking point to the point where everything sounds like a messy stew of power chords, fuzzy bass, and crashing drums. Somehow these guys manage to sound glossy (read: Gin Blossoms) and gritty (read: Dinosaur Jr.) at the same time, which I love, which I cherish, which I adore. Famous Graves is one of those rare albums that builds into a back half that is stronger than the front. So much so that “7-8 Years” is touted as a “Bonus Track” and it’s my favorite track on the album. There are guitar heroics, no jumping through flaming hoops. This is just good old fashioned earnest dude rock. Famous Graves is remarkably consistent and a statue built to those who have been mourning the death of the big guitar in modern music.

RIYL: Ola Podrida, a less grizzled the Reigning Sound, Ultimate Fakebook, the bands listed within this review.

Stream the album in its entirety here.

"Man in Question"