Straight to VHS is an energy all its own; jittery and hook-clustered with driving melodicsm - all contained, like test-tube'd plague, inside punchy two- and three-minute rock songs.

February 13, 2013
Straight to VHS – “RewindeR” People who think of Connecticut solely as a state full of country clubs and gold-lined streets have never been to New London. And anybody who’s wondering where the spirit of punk-rock is these days can find it there.While listening to “Rewinder,” I smelled stale beer and sweat. I felt concrete under my sneakers. I saw dive bars and littered parking lots and empty strip malls. Suburbia after nightfall.
Stylistically, Straight to VHS makes use of early punk templates and can resemble pioneer groups like the Sex Pistols and the Wipers. Their production standards are relatively high for garagerock so I can understand the Jay Reatard comparisons. They’re working within the form, keeping the rough edges and apathetic attitude but it’s obvious they care how the sound comes across. They’re craftsmen.

At just over 20 minutes, the album is a sonic roller coaster ride with one song cascading into the next. The standout track that represents the whole experience is “patchwork city.” In the red vocals, sweet bass doodles, a chorus that turns the groove of the verses on its head and guitar with enough crunch to chip a tooth. The count-in alone is beautifully rock and roll.

Yup, the spirit of punk is alive. I’m not sure if it’s well but when has it ever been? One thing’s for sure: it takes equal amounts pain and love to play this kind of music. -Max Mercy of Mexican-Robots.com

“Let me out, Let me out of this town” opens up “Rewinder” by New London garage punks. After a crunchy, fuzzy guitar intro singer/guitarist Jon Young screams that line that most suburban heartbroken kids can relate to. ” Don’t call it love” its a song about a love gone wrong and a girl who has lied. The second track starts out like something The Thermals would do and keeps in that lo-fi garage/punk sound that i love with “Untitled”. ” It’s not the money” sounds like something from Black Flag’s ” The first four years” record when Keith Morris was still in the band. Complete with a nice drums and bass breakdown. ” Yea, shutup” slides more into the “Slip in in” area of Black Flag. Great intro in this song. Classic old hardcore/punk guitar riff but staying within the that garage sound that makes this band so good. Deeper into the record is “Patchwork city”. This is the song that drew me into this album ( the band released it earlier as a single). This song is pure garage/punk bliss from the sound of the vocals to the drum rolls to lyrics that seem like the band just wants to go out and have a good time. “One thing” has the catchy “whoa’s” with a beat that will make you get up and dance. After what sounds something like Jay Reatard mixed with early to mid 1990’s Sub Pop with the song “Stuck in transit” “Rewinder ends with “Your face” a song that builds up and hits you with pop sensibility mixed with that pretty basement sound and just may give you a peek inside what has happened in the two year hiatus Straight to VHS has taken. All the songs on “Rewinder” are around the two minute mark and each song leaves you wanting more. The band has been through alot in the past and its nice to see they are back making great garage music. If you like stuff like The Kinks, Jay Reatard, The Thermals, and maybe even The Cramps this record is for you.
-Jeffrey Thunders via jeffreythunders.tumblr.com

“It used to be that too few bands sounded like The Wipers—other than Hot Snakes and early Nirvana—but like Ready the Destroyer, StV has Greg Sage’s unrelenting riffage prowess in spades on this five-song debut EP produced by Fatal Film’s Matt Potter. Having also rocked Cosmodemonic’s double-CD Powers New London, CT sampler harder than any band this side of 30-year vets The Reducers, the trio bust a fuzzy, sweaty garage punk with nasty bass in an early punk-ish attack, with 70’s Detroit tough guy vocals. It’s only five songs in 11-and-a-half minutes, but its rough and ready, full of piss, vinegar, and vigor, ripping it up like an update on The MC5’s “American Ruse.” And like an MC5, Radio Birdman, early Damned, or Wipers record, when they chant “Hey” every few seconds, you chant with them, fist in the air.  - The Big Takeover Dec.’10 Edition – The Big Takeover [ JACK RABID ]
“Straight to VHS has wasted no time getting their name out as the hot new thing in New London. They’ve been playing shows, shaking hands,and now they’re releasing their debut EP Self Titled.The production values are somewhere between Jay Reatard (R.I.P.) and Times New Viking. As for what catches your ear… the vocals and the bass completely rule the tone of this record. The overdriven bass cuts through absolutely everything and socks you straight in the gut. The vocals, though melodic, are multi tracked so that it sounds like there is a large gang of people singing at you…. (and by the way, that actually happens too, thanks to Matt Potter and second Fatal Film guitarist Sebastian Coppotelli on backing vocals on tracks “Hey!” and “Have You Gone”). There will be a lot of comparisons to ’77 style punk when people talk about this record but the snarl and swagger of this record is much more rock n’ roll.In short Self Titled is 5 simple and well crafted rock songs. ”     - WailingCity.com   [ Adam Wujtewicz ]
“There’s something almost intangibly arresting about the defiantly scuzzy, 11-minute, five-song debut EP from this New London garage rock trio, something that glimmers through the bare-bones songwriting, rough-edged (at times flat-out sloppy) musicianship and bargain-basement production values. In fact, in a certain light, the raw, urgent spirit Straight to VHS exude increases in power when they’re at their wildest and least professional: the chorus of “Hey,” which is actually just a quick, shouted, “HEY!” The bit on “Self-Titled” that probably should be a chorus, but instead remains a frantic ascending/descending chord progression. The disproportionately loud overdubbed power-chord that ends that song. The mere fact that they named one of their songs “Self Titled.” The many times when it sounds like the members of the rhythm section are falling over each other. This stuff swaggers and staggers, and it’s likely to engross people who like their rock music loud, sweaty, grimy and simple. Why, exactly? I dunno; rock ’n’ roll’s magic that way.” - New Haven Advocate  [ Brian Larue ]

“Straight to VHS released their “Self Titled” debut EP a few weeks ago on Cosmodemonic Telegraph. I don’t know about you folks, but krautrock beats, lo-fi fuzzy guitars and earnest vocals are all I need to rock the hell out. I find myself revisiting this one whenever I need a good shot in the arm, it’s just as good as black coffee. The whole thing just sounds perfectly unwashed and covered with grime, just like those jeans you’ve had hanging in the closet since 1993. ”
- CTINDIE.com

Arts and culture editor for the New Haven Independent, musician, hominid.

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