Yonkers, NY’s Palehound stops in at Go Bar en route to SXSW, the first leg of a long loop: a week down, a week in Austin and a week back up. The band has just a few recordings to its name—a cassette released last year and a new 7-inch, out last week—but its assured sound has attracted a fair amount of buzz, with plenty of sliding 6/8 rhythms and chiming lead guitar to balance out the grunge crunch beneath. There’s a ’90s Pacific Northwest feel to the music, which takes equally from Sleater-Kinney’s bluster and the lingering melodic sense of Elliott Smith. Frontwoman Ellen Kempner’s charisma gives her lyrics a tossed-off quality that belies the wordplay at work—her delivery is forceful enough to make even a line like “Chamomile/ To help wash the day down” sound badass.
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