If, like me, you have a certain nostalgia for the rock of the late ’90s and early ’00s (and hey, it’s OK if you weren’t even born then), then you’re going to want to check out bikethrasher’s new EP Relaxer.

By Graeme Smith

Hailing from Boston, USA, bikethrasher are a band who have garnered previous comparisons to Sunny Day Real Estate, Smashing Pumpkins and Pity Sex. They’ve featured once before on this blog. Earlier this month, Jane included their track Telepathic in her Monthly Favourites roundup.

Relaxer is a a four track collection that straddles the line between alternative rock and punk. It all kicks off with the aforementioned Telepathic which gives us a lively start. An urgent, looping guitar melody sets the tone before smooth and charismatic vocals come in. It’s all wonderfully raw and jangly, celebrating the days before musical over-production, and getting lost in the joy of making music.

Picture Day slows things down with a grungy number with plenty of fuzz. A plodding rhythm hits its stride during a noisy chorus that will have you swaying along.

The EP is then rounded off by the driving and passionate Cupcake and Fear. The latter provides a surprise deviation into a soft and stripped-back instrumental before exploding into the kind of melancholic groove that would have been right at home circa 1994. It ends big with a climax that leaves it all out there.

Bikethrasher are bringing back a band that never truly went away. There’s a reason for that: it channels the angst and anger of youth no matter what generation they belong to. There’s a visceralness to their new EP Relaxer that is simply cathartic, and their unique take means that there’s a place for them among the greats if they carry on like they are. Bikethrasher are certainly ones to watch.

Relaxer is out now and you can check it out below.