Hit Space
(Verb) (Bunkhaus)
Like a sample dish served with the chef’s compliments at a fancy restaurant, Hit Space’s six-song debut EP is a fleeting bite that goes a long way toward cementing fealty for their languid, fuzz-tinged flavor. During the Nineties, vocalist/guitarist Carrie Clark and bassist Jeff Copas shared stage space in Sixteen Deluxe. Hit Space takes that celebrated Austin band’s bedrock pop sensibility on a Sunday stroll through the used-record store, exposing a number of heretofore-unheard musical touchstones in the process. “Frozen in Time” begins with a frigid Interpol guitar riff before settling into a comfortably shambling groove. Clark’s dulcet, slightly-behind-the-beat vocals add distinction to the homemade Britpop homage, “Can’t Get It Right,” while vocalist/guitarist Joel Ossar strikes just the right chords of melancholy and madness on “The Paranoids.” The quartet leaves us hanging on a Galaxie 500-inflected rendition of the Louvin Brothers’ “You’re Learning.” Action like this portends good things for the entrée to come.
This article appears in January 26 • 2007.
