The year 2009 will be written in music history as the year of lo-fi garage/noise rock. There are countless things that can be said on how this noise is a gimmick and why it’s revivalist bullshit, but I don’t want to be a buzzkiller, as countless no talent hacks have already started to bore people with their lo-fiism. Yet I have to sneak two bands before the doors are closed.

First one is Portland’s Meth Teeth. You can’t but laugh when you hear the ingenious band name. Everything Went Wrong on Woodsist is the epitome of clanging guitars, bad quality recordings, noisy but ultimately listenable sunshine pop. 3.5/5

Like Eat Skull, Meth Teeth wraps fragmented bits of pop in a mesh of obstacles – cavernous distortion, buried leads and undecipherable lyrics. The songs win out most of the time, in a clattery, indistinct sort of way, though whether they’d sound better if you could actually hear them is anybody’s call. Dusted

Compare it with the Pitchfork blessed, Girls who are getting lots of attention right now. Don’t want to sound like a Pitchfork basher, because Pitchfork bashing only serves to solidify their position as a legitimate authority. Yet you can’t not object when this gets a 9.1.

“The melodies are solid but unremarkable, the songs are uniformly good but unspectacular, the singer is sincere and charming yet doesn’t say a whole lot we haven’t heard before. The basic sound here, if you were wondering, is Elvis Costello sings Beach Boys. You could expand on that if you wish, but I think that just about covers it. Rateyourmusic“

And what about the video?!. It’s obviously re-selling Aerosmith’s “Crazy” in a no-holds barred überhipster-camp way. I hate to buy into the talentless suburban white hipster lifestyle, no thanks!

So you might ask, ‘then why are you still writing about Girls?’. Well, sure I like to look at things critically, but you have to know where to stop and enjoy the songs. There are some good songs on ‘Album’ and I don’t wanna ruin them for the sake of being correct.. 3/5

PS : Fact magazine weighs in by giving Girls a 8.5.