When Hinds’ debut Leave Me Alone started with a jamming guitar riff, I was scared that this Spanish (but English-singing) all-girls rock band was going down the same lo-fi indie road that bands like The Lovely Bad Things and Black Lips have already thoroughly pounded into the ground. But almost immediately, the jam dissipates into a chilled-out, nonchalant air reminiscent of Mac DeMarco's Salad Days that permeates the rest of the album. Straightforward melodies combined with unconstrained, tangled vocal deliveries make Leave Me Alone a refreshingly fun, relaxing album for the new year, instead of just another lo-fi, garage-rock revival band's latest.
Hinds is one of the few bands where I would recommend watching their music videos before listening to just songs themselves - it helps you get a feel for how much fun these four girls are having throughout the album. The videos for “Bamboo” and “Chili Town” are mostly just the girls smoking and drinking around town, while the one for“Garden” features bright colors and deadpan faces framed in a circle that reminds me of Wes Anderson’s comedies. Go ahead; I’ll wait a few minutes while you go watch those.
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Watching those videos gets you ready to hang out with a band that doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is a real gem in the world of indie rock bands. Just listen to Waxahatchee and Swearin’, who are some of my favorite indie rock bands out there, but they can be fucking depressing to listen to. Even Cayetana (another great all-girls rock band) opens their debut Nervous Like Me with the song “Serious Things Are Stupid,” but it’s still as angsty as a Tiger’s Jaw song. When I don’t want to feel depressed, I have Screaming Females, Dilly Dally, and Palehound to feel cool and badass, but they’ll rarely make me smile. I mean, Hinds essentially named themselves Butts. Does it really take making an ass out of your band’s name (see Diarrhea Planet) to have some fun?? Maybe so - but whatever, let’s get to the music.
Again, I'm really feeling Salad Days when I hear the chilled-out ambiance on this album, but the vocals between Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote are the real highlight of Leave Me Alone. Cosials and Perrote have been friends for quite some time - they started off as a duo named Deers in 2011, and brought on Ade Martín (bass) and Amber Grimbergen (drums) in 2014. The back-and-forth dynamic of a low, commanding voice and a bratty high voice was perfected with the much, much rougher sounds of Fugazi and Dillinger Four, and in many ways Cosials and Perrote mimic that dynamic here. But rather than doing a foiled back-and-forth, Cosials and Perrote often tangle their vocals together and go in and out of harmony. The best example of this is “Fat Calmed Kiddos,” where you’ll stumble trying to sing both singer’s lines simultaneously because they’re both so catchy.
Other vocal highlights are the second half of “Garden,” which can sound like a room shouting the lines, and “Warts,” where Cosials and Perrote mock an asshole friend, singing “She has more names to moan, but you only hear ‘ba-da-ba-da-ba-ba-ba’.” That ba-da-ba-da-ba-ba-ba is one of the catchiest and silliest parts of the album, and I can’t help but always go back to it.
Of course, there’s more to Hinds than just the vocals. The guitarwork, though often pretty straightforward, is always rooted in solid melodies. The jams are so effortless on “Castigadas En El Granero” and “San Diego” that the guitars sound like they’re off The Velvet Underground’s Loaded. And the foundations for “Warts” and “Chili Town” are really just a handful of notes, but they drive the song. And then there’s “Solar,” an instrumental interlude that sounds like a Parisian merry-go-round. Hinds definitely have the chops to keep churning out catchy, almost poppy rock songs.
Or so it seems, at least. As they say, you have as much time as you want to write your debut, and that’s what Hinds has done with Leave Me Alone. “Castigadas En El Granero,” “Chili Town,” and “Bamboo” were all released almost a year ago, and these were some of the best tracks on the album. There are also some weaker songs on here, especially on the second half of the album - the slowed-down tracks “And I Send Your Flowers Back” and “I’ll Be Your Man” just don’t compare to the opening tracks. This will definitely be a band to see on this year’s tours, but only time will tell if Hinds will be able to continue producing this fresh take on an almost beat-to-death genre.
Hinds is one of the few bands where I would recommend watching their music videos before listening to just songs themselves - it helps you get a feel for how much fun these four girls are having throughout the album. The videos for “Bamboo” and “Chili Town” are mostly just the girls smoking and drinking around town, while the one for“Garden” features bright colors and deadpan faces framed in a circle that reminds me of Wes Anderson’s comedies. Go ahead; I’ll wait a few minutes while you go watch those.
******
Watching those videos gets you ready to hang out with a band that doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is a real gem in the world of indie rock bands. Just listen to Waxahatchee and Swearin’, who are some of my favorite indie rock bands out there, but they can be fucking depressing to listen to. Even Cayetana (another great all-girls rock band) opens their debut Nervous Like Me with the song “Serious Things Are Stupid,” but it’s still as angsty as a Tiger’s Jaw song. When I don’t want to feel depressed, I have Screaming Females, Dilly Dally, and Palehound to feel cool and badass, but they’ll rarely make me smile. I mean, Hinds essentially named themselves Butts. Does it really take making an ass out of your band’s name (see Diarrhea Planet) to have some fun?? Maybe so - but whatever, let’s get to the music.
Again, I'm really feeling Salad Days when I hear the chilled-out ambiance on this album, but the vocals between Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote are the real highlight of Leave Me Alone. Cosials and Perrote have been friends for quite some time - they started off as a duo named Deers in 2011, and brought on Ade Martín (bass) and Amber Grimbergen (drums) in 2014. The back-and-forth dynamic of a low, commanding voice and a bratty high voice was perfected with the much, much rougher sounds of Fugazi and Dillinger Four, and in many ways Cosials and Perrote mimic that dynamic here. But rather than doing a foiled back-and-forth, Cosials and Perrote often tangle their vocals together and go in and out of harmony. The best example of this is “Fat Calmed Kiddos,” where you’ll stumble trying to sing both singer’s lines simultaneously because they’re both so catchy.
Other vocal highlights are the second half of “Garden,” which can sound like a room shouting the lines, and “Warts,” where Cosials and Perrote mock an asshole friend, singing “She has more names to moan, but you only hear ‘ba-da-ba-da-ba-ba-ba’.” That ba-da-ba-da-ba-ba-ba is one of the catchiest and silliest parts of the album, and I can’t help but always go back to it.
Of course, there’s more to Hinds than just the vocals. The guitarwork, though often pretty straightforward, is always rooted in solid melodies. The jams are so effortless on “Castigadas En El Granero” and “San Diego” that the guitars sound like they’re off The Velvet Underground’s Loaded. And the foundations for “Warts” and “Chili Town” are really just a handful of notes, but they drive the song. And then there’s “Solar,” an instrumental interlude that sounds like a Parisian merry-go-round. Hinds definitely have the chops to keep churning out catchy, almost poppy rock songs.
Or so it seems, at least. As they say, you have as much time as you want to write your debut, and that’s what Hinds has done with Leave Me Alone. “Castigadas En El Granero,” “Chili Town,” and “Bamboo” were all released almost a year ago, and these were some of the best tracks on the album. There are also some weaker songs on here, especially on the second half of the album - the slowed-down tracks “And I Send Your Flowers Back” and “I’ll Be Your Man” just don’t compare to the opening tracks. This will definitely be a band to see on this year’s tours, but only time will tell if Hinds will be able to continue producing this fresh take on an almost beat-to-death genre.
