Cheap Girls
Famous Graves
Release Date: May 13, 2014
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Punk Revival, Punk-Pop
Record label: Xtra Mile Recordings
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Album Review: Famous Graves by Cheap Girls
Fairly Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 6.5/10
Head here to submit your own review of this album. There's an easily identifiable clang when it comes to garage rock from the Midwestern U.S. The nurtured inspirations of Minnesota legends The Replacements eek through the landscape like ice fishing and off-hand stories off the Bad Boy-era Detroit Pistons. So its not too far off to hear some wished revivalism of Paul Westerberg's sullen bar rock in Lansing trio Cheap Girls.
Based on rating 6/10
Ah. Michigan. The Land of Lakes may sport less in the way of quality latter-day rock bands than its Buckeyed neighbors to the South, but the storied history that gave us powerhouses like the MC5, Death, and the Amboy Dukes previously left fertile soil for bands to spring up from their fallow seed.
Based on rating C+
Michigan’s Cheap Girls make muscular rock ‘n’ roll that harks back to a bygone era. Not to the psychedelic ’70s or the cock-rockin’ ’80s, and not to ’90s signposts like grunge, pop punk, or nu metal. Let’s put it this way: Were Cheap Girls making music in 1994, they absolutely would’ve been on the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack. That’s not a slam.
Opinion: Fairly Good
Lansing, Michigan’s Cheap Girls make yet another label debut with Famous Graves. They’ve established a sound they’re faithful to—punk-rock rhythms busied by ’90s alt-leanings—which has landed them on bills with the Hold Steady and the Gaslight Anthem. “Slow Nod” starts it off strong like a punk-rock Barenaked Ladies, with wandering vocals that could fill up a grain silo.
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