Lifeguard – ‘Crowd Can Talk / Dressed In Trenches’ review: urgent, existential noise-rock

4 July, 2023

lifeguard band

There are times on Lifeguard’s ‘Crowd Can Talk / Dressed In Trenches’ when the Chicago trio might have been wise to include footnotes. Their knotty, intriguingly melodic noise calls to mind everyone from Polvo to Archers of Loaf, but fortunately their abrasive approach to interpreting the past 30-odd years of indie-rock ensures that any further reading can wait until after the final note dies out.

Part of that propulsive feeling comes from the fact that, no matter how old their touchstones, Lifeguard are still kids. Asher Case (bass, vocals), Kai Slater (guitar, vocals) and Isaac Lowenstein (drums) met while in high school and take every turn at 100 miles per hour, slamming into jagged, distorted peaks of sound with little care for their own safety like a band just out to play some shows and cause some carnage.

‘Crowd Can Talk / Dressed In Trenches’ is the band’s first release for Matador Records, a label that helped to build the house they live in by putting out classics by Pavement and Yo La Tengo, and compiles two EPs, one comprising older material and one more accurately reflecting where they’re at right now.

The former, ‘Crowd Can Talk’, is an assured introduction to their appeal, which is focused on maintaining an in-your-face live feel while threading surprising refrains through the gaps left by Slater’s coruscating guitars. ‘Typecast’ is perhaps the pick of the bunch, recalling J. Robbins’ post-Jawbox project Burning Airlines in its ability to wrong-
foot the listener with surging noise and balletic melodies.

Opening ‘Dressed in Trenches’, ’17-18 Lovesong’ quickly puts water between where Lifeguard came from and where they’re going. It strings out a series of patient drones and displays a keen understanding of the power behind the eventual payoff if you are able to stick the landing with a good enough hook. Case’s bass has also become more vigorous over time and it really works as a foil, with his counter-melodies stalking Slater’s jagged notes around the ring on the standout ‘Alarm’.

There is a sense that Lifeguard will only kick on from here, finding greater balance between the competing elements in their music while also growing in confidence when it comes to taking creative leaps. They have studied the blueprints and clearly get how this stuff works. Now it’s time to build something of their own.