my anti-aircraft friend Julie

Released on 9/13/24 by Julie - Atlantic
Main artists: Julie
Genre: Alternative & Indie

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The Orange County, California, trio Julie borrows from the canons of music created in a century before they were born: late '80s-'90s art rock, shoegaze, grunge and even a little alt-metal. They combine ingredients, but there is nothing willy-nilly about the recipe. Vocalists Alex Brady (who also plays bass) and Keyan Pourzand (guitar) dropped out of architecture school to pursue music, and you can feel the measured, analytical care taken in putting songs together. Take, for example, the decision to omit a vocal chorus on excellent "Clairbourne Practice," instead subbing a muscular kick-in of heavy fuzz guitars between verses. "What a way to make your day/ Well, I don't know, it just makes me feel like/ The things you do and all you say/ I'll cut my hair another way," Brady and Pouzand sing together, a disjointed conversation between, the band says, "two voices conflicting and crashing with each other, unable to understand … it's two people saying the same thing and still not hearing each other." (It fades out with what sounds like a found recording, as a static-laden voice says, "The teachers asked a few of the troubled students to draw their imaginary tormentors.") The comparisons to Isn't Anything-era My Bloody Valentine are inevitable, as is drawing a line from "Catalogue" to Sonic Youth—the guitar noise, the fuzz and squeak, the detuning, Brady's more-than-passing resemblance to Kim Gordon's blasé style. Julie may be missing the charisma of Sonic Youth, but so was Sonic Youth on their first album; of all the '90s art-rock revivalists happening right now, "Catalogue" is a pretty true approximation. The restless track is about "the never-ending cycle of just wanting to get somewhere and never enjoying the process," Brady has said, as if offering up an "oh well, whatever, nevermind" anthem for Gen Z. And, indeed, there are shades of Kurt Cobain on "Piano Instrumental" (which is not an instrumental). Stripped-down ballad "Knob," meanwhile, brings to mind the boil-and-simmer dynamic of Hum, while the brooding rhythmic tones of shadowy "I'll Cook My Own Meals" walk the line of alt-metal. Brady's voice gets layered and filtered within a thick layer cake of guitar and driving rhythm on doomy "Feminine Adornments"—props to drummer Dillon Lee, who also pummels alongside searing buzzsaw guitar on "Very Little Effort." The trio mix shoegaze and grunge on crunching "Tenebrist" and embrace sludge on "Thread, Stitch," which clears a path among chaos, temporarily quieting for Brady and Pourzand to sing, then immediately filling the space again. After all, nature abhors a vacuum. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

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my anti-aircraft friend

Julie

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