Minot

Walls [single] (2025)

Mike Elfers

Missoula, Montana's Minot are back with more dirty tuning capacitors and punk rock on Walls//People Pleaser.

The album dons together with the snarling bass line of "Walls," further ripping open the throats of Flora Holland and Alex Molica, who are truly leading the lo-fi on all cylinders. The garage punk anthem about windowless work environments picks up exactly where the previously released And You're Not exits, combining filthy riffs and cracklier pots, finally echoing shut with a huge slap of natural reverb that is both as satisfying as it is charming.

The surf-clean-strums of "People Pleaser" follow, hammering more vocal delivery from Holland and Molica, who (by the way) are sporting the monikers "Chicken Wing" and "Miss Saltine" for this release. The standard Minot drum session from Noah MacKinnon has been stripped even further down, introducing a standing floor tom/snare performance from Noah's split personality, "Junior Mint." The closer slowly dripping in alternative percussion and some eerie church organ to send the spook home to pasture.

The overall production value, while buzzier than ever, is puzzlingly easy to digest, and smoother on the brain cells than the smash hit And You're Not. This is not to suggest, of course, that the trio is losing their momentum or mission statement. I mentioned Dead Milkmen last time and will do so again, for the authenticity of the composition, and the fuck-all of it, is so beautifully pulled off. Walls//People Pleaser is great. Give it a listen.