The Courtneys – “Social Anxiety”

That bass starts and I freak out a bit because my brain instantly goes “Mclusky?!” as though that’s a totally normal response to a few guttural, sloppily plucked bass notes. Then every other piece of the band pops in and fuck, “Social Anxiety” no longer requires a reflex inspired by a fucked up Welsh thug punk band to get me excited.

The Courtneys are not a bunch of psychopaths from a lesser known part of the UK. Instead, they’re a band of young women from Vancouver, BC who mix classic PNW rhythmic sluggishness with the piercing wails of your Pylons or Penetrations. In a perfect world, their new video for “Social Anxiety” would have racked up more than few hundred hits already so that we could just skip the decades in which this music would be ignored by all but a handful and go straight to the era where the band is held up as the ESG of Terminal City. We fetishize long lost post-punk pioneers because DFA tells us that’s a cool thing to do, but it’s also a little shitty because bands like the Courtneys are out there, living in current obscurity, dishing out utterly awesome singles like it ain’t no big thang under the umbrella of a label that’s so confident in its swagger it’s named itself fucking Hockey Dad Records.

No offense to Savages or anything, but if I’m reaching for Sonic Youth indebted post-punk in the year 2013, I’m reaching for the Courtneys’ self-titled 12”. And if you’re smart, you’ll order the re-press now and do so yourself.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Nick Hanover got his degree from Disneyland, but he’s the last of the secret agents and he’s your man. Which is to say you can find his particular style of espionage here at Loser City as well as Ovrld, where he contributes music reviews and writes a column on undiscovered Austin bands.  You can also flip through his archives at  Comics Bulletin, which he is formerly the Co-Managing Editor of, and Spectrum Culture, where he contributed literally hundreds of pieces for a few years. Or if you feel particularly adventurous, you can always witness his odd .gif battles with Dylan Garsee on twitter: @Nick_Hanover