Stream: Together Pangea, ‘If You’re Scared’

Kevin Bronson on October 15th, 2015

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After last year’s not-bad-at-all “Badillac” for the major label Harvest, dues-paying L.A. rockers Together Pangea are returning to Burger Records for their new EP, “The Phage.” Not that they are returning to the lo-fi noise of their distant past. “We’ve definitely moved away from that lo-fi thing,” bassist Danny Bengston says in the press blast announcing the new EP. Adds vocalist William Keegan: “I don’t like the muddy, washed-out stuff. I’ve just heard it so much!” So three cheers for Pangea’s new six-pack of songs, all of which are as good as or better than “Badillac’s” highlights (in our opinion, “Alive,” “Offer” and the title track). The band recorded the EP with the Replacements’ Tommy Stinson (it’s not far aesthetically from Stinson’s 1993’s solo release as Bash & Pop, actually) at Kingsize North studio in North Hollywood. The songs are tight and uncluttered; those ’90s-vintage riffs are vicious; and Keegan sounds like somebody wrestling with adult problems while not quite over being young and restless. If this is what garage bands sound like when they grow up, then let’s hope this maturation thing catches on. “The Phage” is out Friday.

||| Stream: “Blue Mirror” and “If You’re Scared”