Grey Hairs – Colossal Downer

Always a blast when the clever kids play dumb, and plenty have done just that over the years: from Iggy to Mudhoney to METZ, there’s few greater thrills than carefully-deployed primitivism with scant regard for volume restrictions. With DIY noiseniks Lords and Fists on their collective CV, Nottingham foursome Grey Hairs are clearly swotty types, but they channel their smarts into ultra-stoopid riffery and obtuse chord patterns, and the results are just brilliant.

Debut Colossal Downer pulls from post-hardcore (Dave’s Van), demented surf (Martha) and the sort of distorto-brutalism that The Jesus Lizard effectively made their own (er, most of it). The adjective you’ll probably use most, however, is grunge; tracks like Ship and the razorblade smile of Badmotorfingered reek of TAD, with the former also dipping into some serious bottom-shaking boogie at its cathartic peak. As the name may tell you, Grey Hairs are no mere kids, suggesting you’ve gotta put in the time to be this (dis)gracefully, heroically pissed off. That’s just fine though – their wisdom is hard-earned and beautifully, ferociously executed.