Following a solid self-titled debut put out under the name Brat Sounds in late 2014, former Dinny Bulca singer Scott Cary’s new project really started to hit its stride last September with the release of Born Loser, featuring 11 homespun garage rock songs that found the frontman at his finest. With the basement project garnering mention on year-end lists and now being saddled with expectations, how could Brat Sounds be expected to outdo—or at the very least match—Born Loser? Simple: release more songs recorded during the same session.
Gatorade—a surprise EP Brat Sounds will release digitally February 16—features four songs also laid down in Cary’s basement studio during the Born Loser recording. (Two more songs will be part of a split with Seven Costanza later this year.) The latest installment totes the same fuzzed-out and lo-fi pep of its predecessor, highlighted by Cary’s distorted and wavering vocals set atop stripped-down instrumentation. With the driving, brief garage rock number “Sinking Feeling” and the emotive and barren “Everyday I’m Exactly At The Borderline,” Gatorade, understandably, shares some parallels with material recorded during the same span, yet it manages to show more depth and maturity than its sub-12-minute run time suggests.
Before Brat Sounds’ brief catalog grows by four songs next week, listen to Gatorade in its entirety, only at Milwaukee Record.