by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Way back in October, which now feels like a lifetime ago, Boston’s Black Beach released their sophomore album, Tapeworm, an excellent album that’s become one of those “best kept secret” records. No one likes a secret however and we want everyone to know that the effort was a major step up for the band, transposing their earlier garage punk sound into something more venomous and rougher around the edges, what was once a bark is now fully a bite. While Black Beach have always been a band worth paying attention to, Tapeworm and it’s wiry Drive Like Jehu influenced post-hardcore sound has kicked the dirt up a notch and the dust storm can no longer be ignored.
Half a year later and the band are sharing a video from the album for “Broken Computer,” one of the album’s many highlights. Directed by James Wells, it’s a vibrant animation that picks up on much of the single’s own tension and metamorphosis, as globs of paint mutate and shift from human to other with broad strokes of color and wormholes of anticipation. The song is quick and agitated, a streamlined version of what Black Beach are doing so well these days. The guitars sound rusty, the rhythms mountainous, and the vocals have that sort of agitation that feels like it’s coming from a lifetime of agitation. This is a great reminder, we should all get a copy of this record.