The Brainstems record and eat tacos in St. Louis, Missouri. They bonded a few years ago at a local radio station, which led them to form a cover band indebted to garage rippers by Ty Segall and The Coachwhips. After a pact to pursue the rock life for real, the guys inevitably began to feel the tug of the twinkling coasts, career paths and the anchor of the dollar. The title of their new LP, No Place Else, is a nod to the decisions and developments that kept the band banded...

No Place Else is a garage punk album that sounds out of place and out of time. Cheap production values (this is punk, after all) and half baked tunes are pretty much the order of the day here. But that's no bad thing.

Of this album's 13 songs (33 min, 23 sec) '4244' caught my attention. Loud and brash, and the most The Pixies-like of all the tracks here. In fact there's quite a lot of The Pixies influence running through this album - which is good as I used to be quite a fan of theirs.

There are enough tongue-in-cheek moments to make it worth checking out if you're a punk fan. It won't be to everyone's tastes though.

6

Nick Smithson