Pregnant

If you name your band Pregnant, you’d better be good. Luckily, this dirge-spewing Brooklyn trio shows a ton of promise on Wanna See My Gun?, their debut seven-inch for Don Giovanni Records (the Measure [SA], the Ergs!). Over the course of four songs / 11 minutes, Pregnant more than compensate for their dubious name.

The record’s cover features a photo of the band sitting in front of a New York Dolls poster, which might be a hint of the thrashing threesome’s proto-punk to come. Other reference points worth tossing in are the Stooges, Seattle grunge, Cloak/Dagge, and the (International) Noise Conspiracy. Point is, these tunes are alive and/or kicking.

“Falling Over,” “You Give It to Me” and “God Is Nein” make up for the first side of this clear-colored beauty. “Falling Over” slinks compared to the other tracks, which are infectious, furious and fast. “God Is Nein” might be the catchiest of the bunch, with all sorts of “ba ba dadada”s crammed in over a rapid-fire beat.

“Wanna See My Gun?”, at four-and-a-half minutes long, takes up the entire B side. It feels like two tracks jammed together, with the first portion going back to the more mid-tempo grunge feel of “Falling Over,” but a guitar interlude 90 seconds in transitions it into the fiercest rocker of the bunch. Frontman Kevin Manion howls his way through the finale, recalling the passion and power of Nation of Ulysses’ Ian Svenonius along the way.

Wanna See My Gun? was recorded back in May 2008, but it wasn’t released until February 2009. This makes the seven-inch that much more promising; as is, it’s a great record. Throw in the possibility of a year of artistic growth, and Pregnant’s 2009 full-length debut might just be one of the best records of the year. But what will the community think when its children start running around in Pregnant tees?