Pierced Arrows Credit: Photo by Shelley Hiam

Pierced Arrows, Happy Birthday, Golden Triangle

End of an Ear in-store, Wednesday, March 17

Golden Triangle‘s two singers produce a Hitchcock-ian effect: There’s the blonde and brunette up front, shaking tambourines while staring you down. Double Jointer, the Brooklyn sextet’s new CD, shakes that same neon dread out of its garage rock, recalling contemporaries Thee Oh Sees as well as the B-52s in their call-and-response hooks and songs about drinking and arson. The vocal mix was a bit low, overpowered by the wash of guitar, but they got the message across. Happy Birthday, a Vermont threepiece with an equal fondness for harmonies, replicated GT’s sound, just a bit sloppier. While Happy Birthday features members of Feathers and Witch, the music isn’t nearly as psychedelic; the band’s brand-new self-titled Sub Pop debut recalls the early days of underground label Siltbreeze, melody disguised in warped tunings and thick bass. Pierced Arrows, well, they brought it. When you hear the phrase “living the rock & roll life,” this is the definition. Fred and Toody Cole and drummer Kelly Halliburton play like it keeps them alive, songs like “Caroline” and “In My Brain” fusing decades of Northwestern punk into a full deck, and on this black St. Paddy’s day, they’ve got luck in spades.

This article appears in March 19 • 2010.

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