Photo by Tyler Brooks
The members of Chicago’s Twin Peaks have known each other since elementary school, so it’s not too surprising that their brand of garage rock is a little bit tighter and more nuanced than most. Last year, the young band quickly wrote and recorded their debut Sunken, a “mini-LP” that they used as an excuse to tour behind. Yet it didn’t sound slapdash; songs like the watery, dreamy “Irene” showed a band willing to stretch beyond the garage and incorporate strong melodies with their punk energy.
On August 5, Twin Peaks returns with its first proper album, Wild Onion, and the album title is illustrative of the direction the quartet took in writing and recording. With three singers and songwriters to the band’s credit, different stylistic layers reveal themselves over the course of the album. Psychedelia, pop, and punk swirl in equal measure, and their way with a hook is top-notch. “Flavor” bursts from the speakers in a distorted mess, but at its core (especially in the surprising acoustic solo) it’s sweet and sunny.
