free download! brooklyn queercore quartet aye nako’s debut is all kinds of dope. #soundcheck

About 15 minutes ago I came out to my parents. “So you’re bi? Whatever. Bill, do you care? [mumbles something I couldn’t hear over the phone] No, your father doesn’t care either.” It was actually pretty disappointing how anti-climactic it was. But the general endorphin high of getting something off my chest that I’ve been putting off for embarrassingly long is making the queercore (they also call themselves “homopop”) of Aye Nako’s debut sound especially awesome right now. Or maybe it’s just the fact that Unleash Yourself is some of the best fuzzy indie-pop on the scene. Whichever.

Aye Nako follows in the grand tradition of Dinosaur Jr. and Superchunk. Fuzzy guitars, melodic but loud drums, and distorted bass collide with unconventionally catchy, but nonetheless damn catchy vocals. There’s a certain joy to their music, where in recent years indie-pop revivalists like the similarly fuzzy (and similarly great) Yuck have used the sound for angst. Highlights like “Visitors” and “For the Inverted” are particularly effervescent. “For the Inverted” capturing the internal monologue of a hypothetical love affair.

Lead singer Mars (who prefers male pronouns) makes a point of avoiding any pronouns at all in his lyrics. Though the songs often touch on queer identity and feminist politics, they’re less political speeches than they are an expression of the universal joy and pain inherent in relationships.

You can download the full length for FREE from their website (in both mp3 and FLAC formats!). And you really should. You should also probably call your parents and get some shit off your chest. You’ll feel a whole lot better after doing both.

Also they’re playing a CD release show in Brooklyn at the Silent Barn this Friday. Go to there.

– Words by Nathan Leigh