Phonoburbia

Phonoburbia is a post-grunge band from Argentina and this is their On Our Bottoms EP, a fine way to experience the four-piece before they release their first LP on Tree Machine Records. With similarities to Nirvana, Cloud Nothings and Green Day these guys seem to have a pretty accessible sound bringing forth a lot of modern Indie and Punk elements into the nostalgic sound of the 90s.

This EP opens with Now, a track with an explosive intro comprised of heavily distorted guitars and crashing drums that’s certainly going to leave us On Our Bottoms. With the track coming and going with loud and quiet parts it’s your standard grunge song done really well.

On Our Bottoms remains an entertaining and varied listen for its duration with tracks such as Monotonous Dreams offering a more acoustic route with its slow yet catchy tempo. The group vocals give off a more drone-y feel which unfortunately doesn’t give much room for the track to mix things up, but still remains a good way to break up the EP a little.

Closing track Fragile is a fast paced goodbye and a brilliant way to end On Our Bottoms on a high note. To me Fragile sounds like Phonoburbia decided to not care about ticking those grunge guidelines and just go all out with ballsy guitar riffs and even a pretty sweet breakdown. The energy is huge on this track, and it makes me wonder why these guys saved it all til now, but it paid off I guess.

Y’see On Our Bottoms is an entertaining EP with some good tracks but it’s the similarity to Nirvana that hurts it. Sure I mean everybody loves Nevermind and it is a fantastic album but that doesn’t mean everybody should be striving to show how much they enjoyed it via their own music. If Phonoburbia had taken the time to map out their influences and create a sound that’s a little more original then I wouldn’t have to blow my brains out wondering who I’m listening to, but nevermind. - Elusive Little Comments