Short Porch – ‘The Best of… Short Porch vol 1’ EP review: a slack-jawed triumph
Life has gotten Short Porch down from time to time. That much is evident from the odd exasperated growl, lyrics about casually killing people, or penchant for the music to figuratively say fuck it. That makes them the perfect band to turn to when life gets you down a little—not quite as far down as wallowing folk, but far enough to say, ‘You know what, I’m grabbing a beer and blaring some indie rock’.
With cool indifference and quirky humour, their debut EP swaggers with a slight IPA-laden stride. Idiosyncratically sung in a jolted, cartoonish manner that somehow avoids being annoying, with a wicked whip of distorted riffs – crunchy and waylaid by late-night grogginess but deeply melodic – and the best sort of groovy rhythm section that supports the tunes, there is something right about the outfit.
There is a level of honesty about their humour and embracement of the carefree reverie of rock ‘n’ roll. The songs are jokes that feel lived-in. For instance, there’s a moment in the murder ballad, ‘Frank’, whereby frontman Sean McNulty quips, “[Let’s] move far away from your sister and her husband, they talk too much, they don’t need to know anything,” that feels like it was written after a vexing dinner party and slyly slipped into the mouth of the murderous protagonist as a character-veiled jab.
In other words, the cut of their jib is creative yet happily effortless and blessed with experiential truth. They’re not trying too hard. In fact, their music has the thick skin of rightful weariness that is cautious about trying too hard at anything, imbued by the measured approach that comes with hard knocks.
Bolstered with a raw, ‘Meet Me in The Bathroom’ energy, the quirky modern world that exists in The Best of… Short Porch vol 1 is as visceral as it is playfully obtuse, like How to with John Wilson hurled into the same Margarita mix as Bill Burroughs and his bloody Junk. And we’re here for it.
All of that is delivered in a beautifully melodic howl that sounds like the group simply getting away from the world for a while and having fun… which is fitting considering they told us: “We definitely pride ourselves on being a live band, and we wanted to preserve that energy in the recordings, so we were really lucky to capture these songs circled close together just like we would be if you were to see us live. All we did for three days was record, drink beers, and barbeque, and it was kind of a dream.”
You can check out the debut EP below. PS: stay tuned for our forthcoming feature interview with the band soon.
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