Album Review: Nothing to Do by Bleeding Knees Club

Following the release of debut EP Virginity, a tour of their native Australia with the Vines, and sharing the stage elsewhere around the globe with the likes of Black Lips and Toro y Moi, young rockers Bleeding Knees Club return with their first full-length and major-label release, Nothing to Do. As the band name suggests the pitfalls of skateboarding, roughhousing, and, ahem, indoor sports, the record follows suit in offering a rapid-fire collection of songs about chasing girls, making mischief, and naturally, being bored. With drummer/singer Alex Wall and guitarist Jordan Malane just early twentysomethings, Nothing to Do imparts all the spirit and energy of being a teen, served up in under-three minute bursts (minus one track), guaranteed to keep even the most attention-challenged listener engaged.

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They look like they’ve been plucked from the casting couch of a Gus Van Sant movie, are so young they think it’s actually acceptable to cite Wavves as an influence, and they’re already signed to a major for their debut album. These are just a few of the many reasons to detest teenage Queensland duo Bleeding Knees Club.And yet, vexingly, ‘Nothing To Do’ is a real struggle to hate. The fact is, they have an undeniable knack for turning out two-minute garage pop songs with such warm-hearted, wide-eyed brio that shooting them down seems as callous as steamrollering a basket full of kittens.[i]Tom Edwards[/i] .

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The pleasures of this Australian teen punk duo's debut album are super-simple, gleefully reductive and inevitably short-lived. Their schtick seems to vacillate between 1950s rock'n'roll pastiche – all Enchantment Under the Sea Dance mock-innocence and shoo-be-doo backing vocals – and 90s skater/slacker pop-punk. Album opener Lip Stick is firmly in the former mode: a spoken-word intro in the style of the Shangri-Las about "hangin' out with Betty by the bleachers on a Saturday night" set to chiming, reverb-drenched Chuck Berry guitars.

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Vena The idea that bachata, the Dominican romantic style, is a closed circuit, almost impossible to crack by new talent, is given a new dose of credence with the emergence of Vena, a young supergroup made up of Steve Styles, who was the lead singer of Xtreme, and the brothers Lenny and Max Santos, who were the musical heart — guitar and bass — of Aventura, the genre’s juggernaut. Vena is arriving in the shadow of the tremendous solo success of Aventura’s frontman, Romeo Santos, who recently sold out multiple nights at Madison Square Garden. (That group’s fourth member, Henry Santos, a cousin of Romeo, also recently released a smooth solo album on Siente.

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