With the release of “Tilt A Whirl,” the first single off their John Angelo-produced debut EP, Crush, the Los Angeles, CA-based indie rock/dream pop duo Alyeska began to receive attention across the blogosphere for a sound that draws equally from 80s post-punk and New Wave, as it did from contemporary indie rock. And if you had been on this site earlier this month, you may recall that I wrote about Crush‘s second single “Motel State of Mind,” a moody and dramatic song that as the band’s frontperson and primary songwriter Alaska Reid explained in an interview at Billboard wasn’t about illicit behavior, like truckers, hookers and cooking meth, but an attempt to “rip off The Replacements;” however, to m ears, the song reminds me much more of Concrete Blonde‘s “Joey,” complete with a swooning heartache at its core.
Interestingly, the EP’s third and latest single “Sister Buckskin” continues in an 8os post-punk/New Wave/alt-rock vein as it bears a resemblance to The Pretenders, thanks in part to an anthemic hook and gorgeously shimmering guitar work, along with an explosively cathartic ending; but just under the surface is a bitter sense of nostalgia over what could have been — and wasn’t.
