Famous Mammals - S/T LP

Famous Mammals - S/T LP (Inscrutable/USA)

I love y'all so much that I had Sam at Feel It pick up some copies of this yet to be distributed record at Marty's house on the way to the Sweeping Promises wedding and they we flew home with them in our suitcase. Not many shops have copies yet - but Courtesy Desk does!

Famous Mammals were already going to be fantastic the moment they decided to form as a pandemic avocation in 2020, considering they’d been birthed from the flames of recent Oakland, CA scene-definers Rays, The World and Andy Human & The Reptoids. Yet when their wonderfully sharp & confounding self-titled tape came out in 2021, they were better than that, even. Their initial sound clicked along, searched and then found oblique treasure in a deep DIY post-punk void one might associate with 39 Clocks or the Swell Maps - sometimes aggressively sharp and pointed, other times given to captivating and off-centered murky quaalude meandering in all the ways you love.

I’m a big fan of Stanley Martinez’ vocals and guitar, and have been since the first time I saw & heard Rays, and he transported his A-game to a recording session yet again. Likewise Amber Sermeno - we all swooned for her fronting The World, and while we only get one lone track w/ her vocals, it might even be the best thing on here: the chugging & propulsive “Unspoken Chair”. Andy Human - well, that guy just moves from strength to strength, excelling as a bass player here and general instrumental conductor of an echoey and wide-open sound partially transported from the hinterlands, moors and home studios of 1979 Northern England. To my ears, this was the first truly great set of recordings to emerge from a “pandemic band”, and now that they’ve gone on to be a full-fledged recording project and occasional touring band of some renown, it’s phenomenal to see it in the format it’s always deserved.
- Jay Hinman (Dynamite Hemorrhage)