Punk's Undead

Consumables hail from Brooklyn. They have that bass-y groove that you hear in the bands I’ve mentioned in my talk with Mike McGinnis as “pop rock punk”, such as Peep Tempel. A garage-y, shoegaze-y injection into some classic staccato drum and guitar rhythms that, with the measured spoken vocals, pulls from hardcore punk. “Cognition Pt. 2” particularly reminds me of TSOL’s “Abolish government/Silent Majority”. The overtone “pop rock” energy comes from the upbeat sound of the chords making you want to dance like Julian Barratt’s attempt to amuse the grim reaper in funeral episode of Mighty Boosh more than mosh. Bowie also had the same pop rock quality in his work. “Numbers and a Barcode” actually reminds me a lot of the tone and rhythms in “Suffragette City”. I think “Queen Bitch” could also be an appropriate reference for Consumables’ sound. The subject matter still aims to express a comment on the nature of life in, what I interpret, to be a capitalist system with references to consumerism and the prison-industrial complex, but it veers away from streetpunk and hardcore in tone. Their album is consistent in its sound and influence and it’s clear the band knows who they are, which makes for an enjoyable performance and album. The rhythm section is clean and communicates well, driving the groove that’s inherent to the overall sound that I mentioned before. The vocal trades and choruses work well for the upbeat and layered style. The guitars and vocals provide a drone that contrasts the cleaner rhythm section. I feel the Psychedelic Furs do this as well. As with most indie kinda bands, Consumables remind me of a lot of different things and pull from genres intelligently, sometimes with what appear to be cheeky allusions (do I spy a Talking Heads interpolation?). I think they still have a solid foot in hardcore influence and the philosophy of art brut punk, so I’ve included them here.

I had the pleasure of catching their performance in Tompkins. I spent the entire time watching their drummer, which is why I had a lot of fun talking about the drum patterns afterwards. I want to say pitched cowbells were involved, but I don’t trust my memory as it could’ve been another band that day. Either way, their show was good enough to move a drunk girl, on a Saturday afternoon mind you, to insist on telling the band’s (as, we’ve discussed, clearly excellent) bassist that her girlfriend was wild about him in much crasser vocabulary. A most impassioned secondary review from someone who doesn’t feel the need to make notes on lyrical choices and what cymbals the drummer is using to add to my attempt to convince you to add them to your bucket list.