Pitchfork

Blood on the Wall's Awesomer made Nick Sylvester gushingly nostalgic for his own personal early-1990s, as remembered in 2005. "Junkeee...Julieee...", from the Brooklyn trio's forthcoming third album, Liferz, has me nostalgic (in a good way) for Awesomer. Brother-sister songwriting duo Brad and Courtney Shanks, plus drummer Miggy Littleton, are still scratching the museum polish off of the throat-rending loud-soft stonedness of your favorite 90s indie-rockers in a way I totally would've dug back when I was texting Nick terrified last-minute questions about track reviews ("mp3 for that Grizz Bear rmx?") round about when Awesomer dropped. It sounds pretty good now, too.

In fact, if "Junkeee...Julieee..." feels so familiar you think you've heard it before, well, you might not just be lapsing into premature senility. The track appeared in a rough, live take on The Believer's 2006 music-issue compilation CD (compiled by Matthew Derby and Pitchfork writer Brandon Stosuy). On Liferz, this whoa-ohing tale of a "picture perfect" junkie who just won't quit (and needs the narrator to hold/load her up) doesn't have quite the same lo-fi scraggliness, but that's OK. With a trilling, goofily thrilling guitar solo and dank Velvets-y narcotic rush, it's still-- how Pixies say?-- gigantic. You can't go back and remake that I-like-you mix for Casey G., but you can make something new to get nostalgic about.

[from Liferz; due 01/22/08 on The Social Registry]