MP3: In Love With the Sound by Rosehips
With their inaugural full-length album hitting the streets, this Saturday marks the first big apogee in what has been a fairly rapid ascension for the Rosehips . It was just year and some months ago that the first incarnation of the band played what in retrospect seems like a tenuous introductory show.
Since then, the band has made some personnel changes in the rhythm department, put out a 7-inch, cranked up the ferocity of the their live act, turned more than one head in the local media, and collected a bevy of ethusiastic fans. So they enter 2008 in full stride, and celebrate the release of this self-titled record. It’s full of big, wafting riffs with lots of fuzzy guitar, which has evoked comparisons to many of the early ninties indie rock notables, including Dinosaur Jr, Smashing Pumpkins and Rainer Maria. It seems almost remiss to say ‘Columbus’, ‘early 90s’, and ‘indie’ without mentioning that to my ear, there is a component of the work that gives a well deserved nod to the matriarchs of lady-rock around these parts- the much loved Scrawl.
Rosehips are adept at making the most out of the play between big amps and feminine vocals, often relying more on their instruments to mix up the pace and tone of songs while the sung parts trudge along at a more steady and sedate pace. The album as a whole has a rather uniform feel, foregoing real highs or lows and instead draping the listener in a blanket of drone that’s somewhere between a buzz and a purl.
Rosehips will be sharing the Carabar stage with The Lindsay, Mors Ontologica, and Moon High. Hear more Rosehips on pat Radio.
(photo by Mat Rogers)