Sports

As the pounding drums and overwhelming whirlwind of guitars surround you on "Coma Summer," the first song on Weekend's debut album, Sports, you may wonder what the record is doing on the Slumberland label. The harshness of the sound may seem out of place, but as anyone who's heard the Whorl single (one of the first the label released) can attest, there's always been a place for noise on Slumberland. The main ingredient necessary for something to be released by the label is a song, though, and within the waves of noise and clatter on Sports, there are plenty of those. The trio is quite apt at coming up with good tunes ("Coma Summer," for one) and then attacking them with guitar screech, reverb-heavy production, and ferocious energy. Guitarist Kevin Johnson creates huge walls of howling guitars, strumming madly or feedbacking like a downed power cable, while bassist Shaun Durkan and Taylor Valentino alternately hold down the fort and follow Johnson's lead and freak out accordingly. Durkan's vocals are mostly buried in the mix, crooned murkily in the background or singing spare melodies in a monotone that sounds slightly cowed by the sound surrounding it. It's a sound that many, many bands have created, and while many have done magical things with the sound (Sonic Youth, No Age), most have not (too many to mention). Weekend tilt more toward the former end of the spectrum. Sports is mostly an invigorating listening experience, with the noise and energy combining to give you a lift on the uptempo songs or allowing you to drift introspectively on the tempo-less tracks. Sports is a very impressive debut, and Weekend are a worthy addition to the noise rock honor roll. ~ Tim Sendra