Lafayette, Indiana has its fair share of mythical record shops, aimed at bringing in the misunderstood and music hungry. It must be from these bastions of taste-making that foursome Vacation Club forged themselves — within stacks of old surf, garage, and beach rock from the bins of JL Records or the hodgepodge of Von’s. Thanks to the efforts of new 7-inch label Glory Hole, the anti-Annette & Frankie orgies of Vacation Club are now available for a new set of kids stuck in modern times with whims of living out their lives in the past. VC’s cut continues the band’s beached vibes even as they begin to strike out across the Atlantic with a few splashes of mod culture. The Kemps, another stranded foursome — both by geography and ancestry — channel the dark biker culture of the 60s and 70s with the stripped-down “Graveyard Kitten.” Tatted up with rat finks, black leather, and a kink sex appeal, “Graveyard Kitten” evokes the imagery its title implies, thanks to old-fashioned distortion mixing with cat women couture. That such steady, impressive sounds continue to find themselves at odds with the growing culture malaise at work in much of the Midwest is just what Kilgore Trout would’ve wanted.
More about: Vacation Club / The Kemps
