DC’s Mittenfields are FINALLY set to release their long awaited full length Optimists. I was blessed with an early listen and was beyond pleased with maturity and variety of the songwriting and production. Fans of Mittenfields wont be surprised if I say there’s a lot of 80’s-90’s indie-rock sound in it, but what they might not be expecting is all the places the album goes in and around the genre.
Just in the second song, "We’ve Become Numbers," there’s a bass groove with the "angular" guitars, which fuse into bright layered guitars/pedals (that remind one that U2 was pretty cool in the beginning), ultimately crashing into an intense surf-guitar covered shoegaze drone. All complementary sounds in a coherent song. The further into the album one goes, the more variety one hears, both within and across songs. Fuzzy and clean, mathy stuff, poppy stuff, gentle songsmithing, hard rocking. All tight, cool shit. And Dave Mann’s voice is pretty good too.
Check out lead single/video "Optimists" below, and go to the record release show an April 30th at Black Cat Mainstage, featuring a stellar lineup (including Greenland, Magnetar Flares, and Night Streets). –Natan Press