Texas Platters

Housewife

The Delicate Prey (Domestic Junkie)

Suburban boredom has long been fodder for punk albums, but Austin trio Housewife does a damn fine job of encapsulating it. On their second full-length, singer/guitarist John Rose, drummer Craig Carson, and bassist Afsheen Nomai sound even more amped up than on 2004's The Malaise of Modern Living EP. Rose sounds quite tormented on a few tracks – not emo tormented, but something close. On "Reception," he layers a falsetto over a crusty punk beat and spits non sequiturs ("Electric BBO, smells like burning hair"). "Fashion Is for Fascists" is a bit hokey, with it's mall punk intro, but "Ripped Fishnets" throws things back in gear with a plodding bassline and a bit of early Nineties Superchunk. "Iron by the Sea" drowns under a glowing guitar line. This is music for the suburbs, for the domestically challenged, for the daydreamers. This is what Douglas Coupland would've picked for the soundtrack of his novel Generation X. Housewife's music follows those highs and lows, and like the shag carpet and the vertical blinds and the pink stucco, it's oddly comforting and slightly unnerving.