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Oct 19, 2016 P.S. Eliot By Matthew Berlyant

Before Katie Crutchfield (vocals/guitar) started her solo project Waxahatchee in 2011 and her twin sister Allison Crutchfield (drums) joined the now also defunct and much-missed Swearin’ around the same time, they were both in P.S. Eliot, a band formed in their hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Most of this material had been released on LP and cassette on smaller labels such as Salinas and Freedom School, but it’s been out of print for years and had never been on CD. Thus, Don Giovanni takes matter into its own hands by releasing this 2 CD set which contains both of their LPs (2009’s Introverted Romance in Our Troubled Minds starts off disc 1 followed by 2011’s Sadie), the Living in Squalor 7-inch, the Bike Wreck demo, and a series of home demos that round out disc 2.

As for the music, one can definitely hear where both sisters ended up after this and it’s tempting for those who have only heard their more recent work to treat this as a stepping stone, but it should be looked upon more as its own entity. The music here isn’t quite exactly redolent of ‘00s indie rock, emo, or pop-punk, although it’s heavily influenced by all of them, but is a hybrid of all of these things that isn’t a million miles from what Superchunk and Get Up Kids did in the ‘90s and early ‘00s, but with its own unique spin. The lyrics, from what one can discern, are always heartfelt, passionate, and sometimes almost spit out. You can feel the sweat of each DIY space that this band played throughout its four-year life cycle. It is a lot to take in one sitting, but regardless it’s a strong if small catalog by a group whose primary members would go on to do even better things. (www.pseliot.bandcamp.com)

Author rating: 7.5/10