Bummr City is the kind of band that doesn’t want you getting too comfortable with what they do. These guys have been around for the past year or so putting out a consistent flow of releases hailing from all over the way-out lands of lo-fi recording. So how does a band continue to surprise when they’ve worked exclusively in the domain of the unpredictable? In the case of "IOWASKA," lead single from the upcoming The Death of Cool, the band subverts expectation by, ironically, moving in a more conventional direction. They haven’t eliminated the grainy weirdness found in their earlier releases—we are still talking about a track named after the phonetic pronunciation of a substance that’s easier to say than spell after administering—but instead have cultivated it, refining their songcraft and taking to the studio for a much more polished end result. It takes an amount of confidence in your own sound to move toward what’s more recognizable without losing what makes you unique, and Bummr City has pulled it off.
If you love a good show and hate vowels, make sure to see Bummr City tomorrow (3.10) at Drkmttr with Darkwing, The Mumzees, and The Plastic Bags. –Austin Phy