Palberta and
No One and the Somebodies are both bands from the state of New York who play absurdist, highly energetic post-punk that effortlessly zips between genres and dynamics. Their split album
Chips for Dinner was originally released on cassette in 2015, with
Palberta's songs on the first side and
NOatS' on the second, but the 2017 vinyl issue on
Wharf Cat flips the two bands so that
NOatS lead the charge, and both groups additionally cover a song by folk-punk cult heroes
Old Table.
NOatS consist of four brothers, and they've been making music together since the early 2000s, but only have a handful of releases to their name. They obviously take their time to craft their songs, which can have enough shifts and changes to seem like mini-epics even when they're only a minute or two long, making them contemporary heirs to the spirit of artists like
Captain Beefheart. The group members demonstrate their youthfulness as well as their sense of humor with songs like "Nue Metal" (which is aggressive without quite living up to its title) and their cover of
Old Table's "Sonic Youth, the Reptilians and Me" (which begins with an ear-catching sample from
The Lion King). Highlight "Chicken Milk," which brings to mind groups like
the Scene Is Now and
the Red Crayola, features a skipping beat and pianos, with clean vocals continually interrupted by faster, more discordant parts. "Awake in the Dark" is more ambitious, alternating between slower verses with politically themed lyrics, a middle section consisting entirely of whistling, and emo-punk wailing backed by an organ. The all-female trio
Palberta have released several albums and EPs since 2013, and their loose, angular songs recall
the Slits and
the Raincoats but with eerie harmonies reminiscent of
the Roches. Their songs are generally short, shambolic, and abrasive, uneasily combining distorted no wave with singsong vocal melodies. "Take You Away" is uncharacteristically long for them, at four minutes, and starts out sounding like a cover of "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!," but derails and gradually dissolves. Songs like the disjointed avant-disco jam "Nana" are much more concise. ~ Paul Simpson
