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Zulu Pearls

Zulu Pearls
ECA Records

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Zulu Pearls - Zulu Pearls With how much weight they pack, it's no wonder Rock History and Expectations are so capable of bullying new acts on the rock'n'roll schoolyard. With so much musical territory mapped out over the past 50 years, and so many expectations for bands to reinvigorate favorite sections of our record collection, it's no wonder so many youthful bands' arms get twisted around enough to cater to History and Expecations rather than pursuing their destiny.

Zulu Pearls may be a 98-pound weakling in terms of the musical schoolyard -- a mostly unknown effort making a debut on a tiny label -- but the Washington D.C. outfit's brave enough to stand up to the bullies on Zulu Pearls. With a darkly atmospheric sound and singer/guitarist Zach Van Hoozer's soaring tenor, it'd be more than easy for the Pearls to buckle to the bullies and become just another Joy Division-infatuated gang of millennial hipsters. And who could blame them, with Interpol commanding so much attention these days?

But Zulu Pearls, who were locally known as Widows until a ninth-hour name change, refuse to bend. And while there are more than a handful of Joy Division tendencies to the band's sound, it doesn't stop there. Van Hoozer leads his band out of the post-punk ghettos to indulge guitars that echo Television as much as Joy Division, a hearty melodic sense that's a few orders heftier than the sickly melodies upon which post-punk built its reputation and, if you dig deep enough, a command of dynamics that's almost pure rock. When the band's at its best, as in "Dark Ages" and "White Flag," Zulu Pearls find a spot in nocturnal guitar-pop that's somewhere between Britpop melodies and post-punk gloom. "Blush" swerves away from the pursuit of rock melody to meddle with rock dynamics that aren't muscular as much as full of vigor.

Zulu Pearls are confident enough to stand up to the big bullies, an effort that pulls this album out of the dustbins of Interpol wannabes and into a place with a lot of promise. Zulu Pearls might not yet have the muscle to punch back and really exert itself, but it's a spot in which any fledgling band should be proud to be.

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Zulu Pearls

Zulu Pearls ECA Records

Zulu Pearls
ECA Records