No Place Else [Vinyl]

Children, the time has come to put away magick crystals and those pouty selfie undercuts. Bad Diet Records is bullish on our latest release, the debut LP by The Brainstems, entitled ‘No Place Else.’ How bullish? When we say ‘No Place Else’ ranks among the top rock albums of 2015, we mean it. We mean it like a pocketknife ran across a palm. We mean it like the ghost of John Peel holding the severed, dripping head of Skrillex to a rock-depleted world over-runneth with pizza-sticker punkers and tongue wagging pop-tarts. It’s the least you could expect when a member of Lumpy and the Dumpers opts to be the band’s new drummer. One of the simple joys of this album is how successful The Brainstems are at embedding the listener into the circularity of their music — the fun, frantic action of its creation. Of course, many people relate to how living in a place outside the slipstream of media shapes identity for the better. That dissonance isn’t limited to St. Louis. Nor is the persisting dissonance surrounding the socio-political protests in Ferguson, leading to the hallmarks of the the album’s first single, “Redline,” which steadily addresses the aftermath by questioning city lines drawn by invisible hands.