The New Music

Little Girls Concepts [Paper Bag]

Prone to ownership by trendy subgenres (shitgaze, no-fi) and even brand new ones (noise-gaze, anyone?), Toronto’s Little Girls is essentially catchy bedroom experiments by one Josh McIntyre. A self-confessed lo-fi musician (it’s cheap and he likes the sound, nuff said), Little Girls has found itself a victim of the “instant blog star” pandemic that is quickly burning out anyone with an obscured MySpace page and a limited 500 run 7-inch. McIntyre has both of those actually, after releasing a single on Mike “Blank Dogs” Sniper’s Captured Tracks label as well as an EP called “Thrills” on the dead-cool Mexican Summer boutique label.

Concepts comes on the heels of this summer’s Tambourine EP he dropped digitally on hometown indie giant Paper Bag. In fact, you’ll find all of that EP (which lifted both songs off the 7-inch) on this full-length, as well as the title track from the Mexican Summer release and five new ones. It reads like label pressure was the root of that decision, but rehashing those songs and coalescing them into an LP works out well for McIntyre’s type of haunting pop craft.

This is the third time “Youth Tunes” has been released, but the dueling one-string guitars, the drum machine groove and the intermittent samples are the reason it found such an anthemic status on blogs. “Tambourine” has as much potential for being Little Girls’ signature song, thanks again to its riffing and rhythm, this time a metallic twang and hyper teutonic beat, respectively.

In fact, McIntyre doesn’t short-change us on anthems. “Last Call” is straight out of the Joy Division playbook with its Hooky bass line, razor-sharp guitars and taut, militant drums, “Growing” hugs the top string riffage with as much muscle as Dan Boeckner in either Handsome Furs or Wolf Parade, and the hook-filled melodies of “Imaginary Friends” is as close to a sing-along as McIntyre allows.

If only we could sing along.

What’s sure to be the bane for many people is McIntyre’s vocals. Though prominent in the mix, he’s layered them with so much fuzz and muck that you’d have a easier time just coming up with your own lyrics. That said, the vocals are merely on par with every other facet: the drums are looped with little variety, the guitars are both heavy on low-end muffle and piercing treble, and it all sounds produced in a garbage can trapped 100 feet under the ocean floor. But that’s what is so alluring about Little Girls – it fuses noise with melody and pop with experimentalism the way everyone from the Velvet Underground through Sonic Youth and Pavement to everyone in this recent wave of “no-fi” artists have for the sake of diversifying.

Concepts isn’t without its nits to pick though. Just a few months back, McIntyre grouped his two EPs together and sold it as a CD-R called Auditions at his shows. Why he never released that as his full-length is unclear (likely something to do with Mexican Summer), but a rave-up like “Pigeon Lady” or the melancholy drone of “History” stand far superior next to the empty Sonic Youth-ful “Departure” and the dim din of “Seeing.”

But Little Girls has struck while the iron is hot. And if McIntyre’s goal was to release an album before the MP3 blogs forget him, he can rest at night knowing he’s made a memorable one.

Rating: B+

- Cam Lindsay