Album Details

• Artist: Spraydog
• Album: Karate Summer Camp
• Label: Ferric Mordant
• Year of Release: 2008
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2008-12-19

It is way too late to call a band grunge and have it be a compliment, but this British band certainly absorbed the Seattle sound's ability to sound candid and epic at once. Through in a little local power pop, and you have Spraydog. "Karate Summer Camp" sounds timeless, though not original, and could easily have fit on a 90s compilation as it does on any sane radio station today.

You get the sense that vocalist Maria Fontana could admirably front a shoegazing or goth band, but here she keeps the dramatic possibilities (and perils) of her voice in check in service of the hypnotic, pungent music. Catchy but crunchy guitar solos abound, those on "Allison Blaire" and "Leave Me Sleeping." Guitarist  Steve Robson also adds deft colors to "Prizefighters" and "One Big So-So."

This is one record that pays a heavy nod to the past that also mixes in the band's own ideas. The production is not slick, but the melodies shine anyway. "Karate Summer Camp" does not so much borrow the soft-to-scalding structures of Pixies or Teenage Fanclub as play around with them, creating something that, if not new, is honest and rocks. Given the slew of bands that just straight out ripoff the past and act like they can pull it off as original, Spraydog know their roots, and their own chops.

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