UNCAPPED 010: ALE MANIA

This week we headed South to San Diego to gaze across the Mexican border with synth-powered post-punks Ale Mania. Driven by the same duo that propelled the late great San Diego garage act the Sess (as well as the all too brief blogoshpere darlings Beaters), Ale Mania is the newest project from guitarist Jeremy Rojas and drummer/vocalist Andrew Montoya. Over the course of their set they transformed the usually laid back San Diego audience into a dancing, head-bobbing mass.

Although Ale Mania is composed of many scene stalwarts of America’s Finest City, the sound they mine is heavily indebted to the‘80s titans of London and Manchester. Bass driven lo-fi along the lines of the Cure’s earliest work but tempered with a willingness to experiment and invert expectations like the Pop Group and Public Image Ltd., Ale Mania successfully fuse New and No Wave into a moody, danceable hybrid.

Synths are a key component of their sound, but these aren’t the weaponized, ready-for-the-arena synths of New Order. Ale Mania uses synthesizers that haven’t yet become self-aware, and this distinction insures the band’s proper placement in the punk rock tradition.

Like their SoCal contemporaries Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and Geneva Jacuzzi, Ale Mania marries the energy and experimentation of New Wave with a grittiness that was often shunned in the genre’s heyday. Though not as bombastic as Cold Cave or as vexed as Cryptograms-era Deerhunter, Ale Mania does a fine job creating memorable songs that proudly parade their influences without sycophantically adhering to the tired axioms of the 80s.