This band features former Craw guitarist David McClelland, but be not misled, they sound nothing like Craw at all. Instead, Bat Eats Plastic might best described as an unusual blend of obscure indie rock, post-punk, and garage rock fronted by fairly monotone female vocals. Under normal circumstances reading that sentence might make me think, "Hey, that sounds cool." But in all honesty, this band isn't really doing it for me. I don't know... their "Fugazi/R.E.M./Jawbreaker-but-not-as-quirky-or-as-serious" style has its moments but really just doesn't click with me aside from a few tracks. "Fanfare", for example, is a bit more somber and melodic, and I like that a lot. There are a few other songs that hit on that mood as well, but when they get more rocked out or abrasive and noisy it just doesn't fly. The recording is (probably intentionally) raw with dirty guitars, really dry vocals and drums, etc. It sounds okay, but there's no low-end aside from the kick drums, so the bass needs to be louder to fill out the middle. It's just a little bit too rugged for what they do best, which is the melodic and (what should be) smooth chord progressions and spacey guitars met with calm singing. The layout is quite simple and somewhat bland. Everything is black and white xeroxes and the original artwork wither was or was made to look like it was done with spraypainting and stencils. All there is is a one-sided onecard cover, and then a traycard with the tracklist and minimal band information. No lyrics or anything like that. With a fuller, smoother recording a more controlled sense of songwriting I bet I would really like this a lot. It's just not working for me yet. I love the vocals, and some of the music is great, but for the most part this disc just sort of drags along and shows a glimmer of hope for the band's future.
[self-released]
Running time - 44:49, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Fanfare, One Mile]
Bat Eats Plastic - http://www.bateatsplastic.com
