Review: Wolfman Fellowship

The year 2015 stands to be one of contemplation on the post-rock sound, once omnipresent in American culture. Surely as the pendulum swings, popular music has begun to sway away from its fascination with what will, eventually be remembered (for better or worse) as “hipster” music – somber, “feely” music designed to be a soundtrack for a twenty-something’s mopey lifestyle rather than a convention-eschewing statement of truth. Bombay Harambee does not follow in this vein. They are a rock band in a post-post-rock world. Their sound is brash, and their songs snarl with 70s-era guitar tones, way closer in execution and intent to Iggy Pop than Death Cab For Cutie. Their songs pile meaty chords (that ring like outtakes from a Rolling Stones record) on top of dirty, Mudhoney-esque riffs. Front man, Alexander Jones, sings smart lyrics with a stoicism that is strangely soothing in such powerful music.

The band just released a full-length, “Wolfman Fellowship” on cassette on Weiner Records. Congratulations, Weiner Records. Good for y’all. Bombay Harambee is brave stuff. You are working with a band with clear potential, that crafts honest, complex songs, and not with a band that drizzles dreary, amorphous sound-blobs into a cookie-cutter labeled “music.”