Oh My Rockness

Bands have been experimenting with punctuation for some time now, but they always seem to go for the easy exclamation mark. I much prefer Shark?'s approach to punctuation. Do we rock? Do we not? Let's leave it open ended, shall we?

Anyway, Shark? is a very nice fuzzy lo-fi band that make short, concise songs that, yes, rock. The singer also does a little Ian Curtis thing, if you're into those low vocals. Although Shark?'s (man, that's hard to write) music is much more snappy and happy than Joy(less) Division ever was.

Think of this music as optimistic garage with a little bit of new wave weirdness (courtesy of a synth) going on. Shark? lists some of their influences as Pavement, Talking Heads, Dinosaur Jr and Guided by Voices. So if you like any of those bands, you, along with 95% of the indie-rock population, would do well to give Shark? a try. They're definitely an enjoyable listen. No question about it.

Published 08/12/10