Album Reviews

Milwaukee’s Phylums know a thing or two about writing songs with three chords. Don’t believe me? Check out “Phylum Phyloid”, the band’s debut album which came out last week on Dirtnap.

With surfy guitars, plenty of fuzz and driving toms they tackle serious subjects like cold coffee (“Cold Coffee”) and a vacuum cleaner (“Vacuum Cleaner”), but will just as well voice their opinions about alienation, the afterlife and speech impediments. All this while paying homage to bands like the Sonics and the Nuggets.

Check out opening track “Can’t Get Through” which is off to the races right from the start, before moving on to “Cold Coffee” (that organ!) and “Stutter Bug” (those handclaps!). Whatever they choose to inject their songs with, the result is always solid and a helluva lot of fun to listen to.