New Music – Don Kobold

Kiss My Super Bowl Ring is the newest endeavor from twins, Wyatt and Fletcher Shears who make up one of the more interesting duos of music. The Garden houses the brothers under a helm of protection that balances and teeters between punk rock and the underside of garage rock. Found as a shining example from the garbage pile on the front cover, Kiss My Super Bowl Ring is complex, but enthralling throughout.

Their previous record Mirror Might Steal Your Charm was immediately thrust into the lap of personal favorites coming from 2018, and the bar was set fairly high coming into Kiss My Super Bowl Ring. Here, this is less of a straight-forward arrow approach and more of a break-beat percussive twist that interweaves through 11 tracks over 35 minutes. While the record feels as if it was a step backward in the clean production that accompanied The Garden in 2018, this step backward is in no way a retrogressive one. Instead, Kiss My Super Bowl Ring is a rambunctious dive through tumbling percussive clashes and electronic bursts that accompany these oftentimes shouts of frustration and braggadocious behavior.

Between both Wyatt and Fletcher, there is this adventurous nature that always trails in their themes of sound. Every record has its own identity and Kiss My Super Bowl Ring burns this essence that has a mid-2000’s gloss over it. Somewhere underneath that neon green font, The Garden swings back the doors with “Clench To Stay Awake” which is one of the essentially slowed tracks present. Beginning, “Here comes another day, where I clench to stay awake. Here comes another day, where trauma becomes my fate,” with little percussive clicks and snaps to fill the void where the gentle instrumentation suddenly erupts into a one-two step shouting “Run to the back, find a place to lie down. Get on my back, hope the pain will die down. Ashamed of my mind, ashamed of my body, from now on I’m in control.” Where the rests are important as it transitions into “A Struggle” which is a similar burst of energy then followed by beautiful and relaxing production.

The Garden have an amazing time of cracking in and out of these frantic moods where everything collapses on the weight of itself. With a track like “The King Of Cutting Corners” that features some real rage behind the vocals, the somewhat hook explains, “You can catch me flipping quarters before my work is done, you can catch me taking orders but my ears are gone,” with this guitar that blasts in the background. As the walls close in and the end is in sight, the sound explodes in one last colorful ombre.

Kiss My Super Bowl ring is primarily stuck between intimidation and creation which in turn, makes for some conflicting moments here. On one hand, The Garden is an energetic bomb that breaks pavement, on the other, they manage to deconstruct the label of style for this record and again, create something entirely unique.

Listen To Kiss My Super Bowl Ring Here!!! – BandCamp/Spotify/Amazon/iTunes