Koalacaust / Big Kids - Split [7-inch] (Cover Artwork)
Staff Review

Koalacaust / Big Kids

Split [7-inch] (2010)

Mountain Man


Two of the most promising acts in noodlemo team up for this nifty split 7".

Koalacaust stock opener "The Dadpunchers" with fun sing-along moments and plenty of dynamic, chugging riffs with head-bobbing squiggles. Group vocals grunt out scratchy yells together with enough little stop-start gaps to keep all three minutes engaging and interesting. Associations with Joyce Manor began to kick up a release or two ago, and the back half of this song, as well as "Post-Blood" warrants a direct comparison. But "Post-Blood"–which feels a little more controlled and less slapdash than "Dadpunchers"–seems to have somewhat more guitar layers and intricate intermingling than that band. It's a pretty swell pair.

Big Kids just contribute one track, but it runs more than five minutes, so that's cool. What they do ain't far off Koalacaust's cuff, but the vocals are more in line with early Bear vs. Shark, and it goes a long way to helping the band establish more of an identity for themselves. That, and it's a slow-churning, mid-tempo grinder that busts in full volume just under two minutes in, then lays off for a rhythmic build. They repeat this a couple times, making for a slightly distorted epic that wouldn't have been entirely out of place on My Heart to Joy's Seasons in Verse.

Sensible partners with similar sounds, but not so much so that this 7" is redundant.

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Koalacaust / Big Kids split EP