UNCAPPED 012: YOUNGER LOVERS

By Ezra Morris

Coming from a region known for its love of bridges, Younger Lovers continues the streak of Bay Area bands bridging Nuggets-style garage rave-ups with the no-frills Maximum Rock 'n' Roll-informed DIY ethos. Forsaking the headset microphone but still probably making Phil Collins proud, the band brought its brand of power pop to an eclectic crowd at San Francisco’s Café Du Nord.

Like fellow Oakland rockers Bare Wires, who shared the stage with them that night at Café Du Nord, Younger Lovers is powered by the machinations of a Southern-born Bay Area. Frontman Brontez Purnell started the band at the age of 12 while still living in his native Alabama. Over the years the band has gone through many incarnations before settling on the current line-up. Channeling Jonathan Richman and Paul Westerberg through the prism of the Frumpies and the Gories, they excel at fusing back-to-basics pop hooks and arrangements with a healthy helping of fuzz and grime.

Younger Lovers is part of a new wave of NoCal bands that gleefully incorporates their frank take on sexuality into their anarchic explorations of an earlier era's pop conventions. Much like what Limp Wrist did with hardcore and Le Tigre did with electroclash, Young Lovers, along with Shannon and the Clams and Hunx & his Punx, are bashing out worldly jams that don’t sweat the didactic elements. They've got other items on the agenda — namely making sure they're the soundtrack to having a disgustingly good time.