Profile: Boys Age

Running this blog, I spend a lot of time looking back. I travel to the 50s and beyond in search of obscurities, collectables and odds 'n' sods. A lot of the music I find has a certain quality to it: an idiosyncrasy characterised by signs of wear and tear and a feeling of genuine substance having been lost in a sea of blink-and-you'll-miss-it zeitgeist hype. But sometimes this music exists in the present, under my nose. There are bands who are currently active that embody said qualities, that inhabit their own sound and style. Boys Age are such a band. I first heard Boys Age when home recording legend and Dig That Treasure! favourite R. Stevie Moore posted about them on his Facebook page. Moore has a habit of playing Godfather to exciting lo-fi protégés, having previously championed Ariel Pink and Keel Her. He's rarely wrong, and Japan's Boys Age are no exception. Although influenced strongly by Yo La Tengo (with Boys Age dubbing themselves the "Sons" of the band), they manage to come off as original in a way that actually justifies use of such an overused word. Maybe it's in Kuzznary Mutow's croaked vocals, or in the band's aesthetic restlessness. Six minute long Fake Gold Pt. 1 includes church bells and screeching guitars, God Will Test You Through The PC Screen recalls wayward 90s rock like Ween and Beck, and Just As Satan Says is a highly textural soundscape with vocals that may as well be those of Ira Kaplan. The song featured in this post, I Wish For God's Sake, is infectious in a way that is both familiar and imaginative. The band are highly prolific, with a Bandcamp page filled to the brim with releases of different shapes and sizes. Spare some time, Boys Age are worth it!

Label: Bleeding Gold, Burger Records, Rye On The All Golden
Genre: Indie Rock, Dream Pop, Experimental, Bedroom Pop