Vivian Girls: "Such a Joke"

“Such a Joke” grabs you quickly, and the grip is fucking tight: an anchoring bass line straight outta any late ‘80s 4AD record, decaying hits of JAMC guitar, and gorgeous swashes of intertwining vocals (your guess is as good as mine as to what they’re singing over one another; all I’ve got is “do you something something valentine something something such a joke something something choke!”), each swarming together in a lo-fi clusterfuck, simultaneously harsh and sweet and gloomy. The glorious onslaught doesn’t last long, but such is the uncompromising charm of Brooklyn’s Vivian Girls. Who, uh, our own Andre Perry enthusiastically described at this year’s SXSW festival as “proud progenitors of amateur and crappy post-punk. And by crappy I mean the most awesome shittiness, a golden turd.”

Ignoring the backhandedness of comparing this band to a turd, regardless of how much gold is involved: yes! This is unrefined and yet immensely loveable shit (…not literally). Littering this song’s claustrophobic orbit are traces of super-early Throwing Muses and the (sadly defunct) Aislers Set, even fleeting shards of the Vaselines (think ”Dying for It”), except way more intense. As with the Aislers Set (seriously, RIP, they were so good) specifically, there’s definitely some Phil Spector—as adapted by shoegaze, at least—at play here, a crude Wall of Sound that elevates the lilting dream-pop melody. Hell, it’d probably cool and gooify into a Pale Saints-esque monument if they didn’t jack the tempo and kick out this jam in well under two minutes.

In other words, to further quote Andre, “Such a Joke” typifies Vivian Girls’ unrelenting “post-punk shoegaze girl group explosion”; just as you’re really starting to realize how thrilling that synthesis can be, whoosh, it’s over, the band already on to their next abrasive, pop-encrusted hook. And it only gets better from here.