Three-legged races

The Charts/Besties - split tape
Eggy #32

I like the disparity between Portland, Ore.'s the Charts and Besties. This split tape is like two kids tied together for a three-legged race, each one wanting to stumble down his own path and go at his own pace. Besties do songs that feature variations of what's essentially the same epileptic, nervy, piercing guitar melody, as well as these moments that feel like exclamation points within the song, where the snare drum, bass, and a guitar chord all thunder in unison. It's like a railroad spike is being pounded into your earthy skull, one hammer-stroke at a time.

Compared with Besties, the Charts feature less forced falsetto, less vocals that sound like they're coming from the bottom of a deep sinkhole, less vocals that call to mind guttural incantations from a long-dead cave ritual. They offer pleasant sentiments like "We got a good thing going" and "Yes I hope you will / Yes I hope you might / Try a million times and finally get it right." And there's a song that evokes '50s high school dances lullabies, that could pass for "Earth Angel"—if "Earth Angel" was done by a band on the Nuggets compilations and was playing on the stereo of a Camaro that crashed through the wall of the high school gymnasium and the speakers on the car's stereo system were damaged, leaving the song to sound all prickly and subterranean.