Raspberry Bulbs "Finally Burst...With Fluid" CS

I remember I was with my friend when he bought this tape a year ago when it first came out, and we went right back to his apartment and threw it on, and I remember saying, "I really couldn't sit around listening to this all day," but over the next day or so it occurred to me that my every thought was pervaded by the ridiculously catchy riffs of this tape. I could not get these damn songs out of my head. When my friend left me alone in his apartment for a while, I had to put "Finally Burst..." on just to try to please my brain's constant nagging to do whatever it would take to get the songs out of my head. One thing I really think makes this tape pretty great is the way the bass is mixed in; it def overpowers the guitar, and is extremely clean (distortion of course, but not noisy is what I mean). The guitars have a great thinness to them, slightly out-of-tune to make ordinary progressions sound fresh. To me this is an entirely different listening experience than Bone Awl, which I know many will disagree with, and I can understand why most people would probably disagree with me. It's true that in one way the two bands are slightly different means to the same end, but when I listen I can't help but be taken to a separate place. Obvious differences are RB play with much less energy and have more formally structured and more rigidly structured songs, following a much more traditional structure in terms of layout. The chaos just isn't here, the strumming is rigid, and the repetition is much much less emphasized. I'm not denying the links to Bone Awl, though, and I won't even go through them because any idiot can figure it out for them self, and if you're a fan of Bone Awl and haven't heard this band yet, I'd still def highly recommend it. If you haven't been listening to any truly "catchy" music lately, here you go, this'll do it for you.