Any last words? October’s Rock Bottom EP became an unexpected swan song for rock & roll hucksters Berkshire Hounds, who committed seppuku in May. Succinct counterpart to 2013’s interlude-ridden Are Not Amused, this focused five-song disc finds the group at peak power, funneling classic rock tactics into the jaded millennial mindspace. In coruscating opener “I Don’t Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” guitarist Jim Campo informs us he’d rather “Watch you from a distance like a three-car pileup.” In another gesture of twisted love, pianist Spencer Garland gets soulful atop a Memphis-style horn section, inquiring “Can’t I be both you and me? Or should I be nobody at all?”
This article appears in June 5 • 2015.