Grocery Bag, a dynamic local psych garage band, released their debut album Break You on Nov. 25. The four-piece outfit consists of Isabella Martinez on guitar and lead vocals, Logan Kerman on bass, Jimmy Mercado on drums and Dillon Aitala, an economics sophomore at UT, on lead guitar. The band formed a year ago, gaining a reputation for their dynamic live shows, and Break You puts songs from their sets to recorded form.
The first 30 seconds on album opener “Alone” immediately show listeners what Grocery Bag cares about: raw and energetic psychedelic rock. Although the band plays with different guitar tones, the punchy guitar riffs never get overshadowed by an attempt to be weird. These songs primarily aim to encourage the listener in a live environment to mosh. Although the band remains unsigned to a record label, Grocery Bag does not let the recording or sound quality slip. Throughout Break You, each track sounds like the work of seasoned professionals, not amateurs in school.
Grocery Bag also displays incredible musical prowess and technical musicianship on each track. Aitala on lead guitar pushes through riffs both powerful and hooky. On “Better Lover,” Aitala indulges in his one proper guitar solo of the album. Behind it all, Mercado sits on drums, taking the songs and giving them the punch they need. He’s a fast and confident drummer, unafraid to show off his percussion chops when partaking in fills. A particular highlight appears with his ultra quick hi-hat playing in the breakdown of “XING.”
Grocery Bag finishes the album with “The Bends,” a six-minute-long jam where the tension ebbs and flows and Mercado takes over on guitar and vocals. The band often chooses this track to close out at their live shows, and its inclusion solidifies the album as a setlist finally put on tape.
Break You feels distinctly created in Austin, juggling psych with the extremities of hardcore and punk music. The album doesn’t give listeners a chance to catch their breath, and keeps it relatively brief at 27 minutes, but that’s all it needs to pack in all the riffs and drum fills it wants. On their first LP, Grocery Bag knows what they want their style to be and executes it in expert fashion.
4 head-banging mosh pits out of 5
