Sleepies, Parlor Walls

Sleepies are a weirdo punk act based in Bushwick. They do the whole loud and fast thing as well as anybody. But what I like about them is there's always something *off* about their songs--an extra beat, a curveball chord change, the mangled and maniacal way singer Thomas Seely wraps his words around a melody, coming in and out of pitch. (What a voice and sense of meter.) If they have spiritual forebears, it's the Buzzcocks and Wire and scuzzier stuff like Hickey and Big Boys. Their full-length albums, both produced by The Men's Ben Greenberg, have a fabulously smoldered, disintegrating quality to them that fits the lyrics to a T. Christ. I really love these guys. They can really fucking play.
-Nick Sylvester