There are two songs on the new Jeff the Brotherhood album with the word “hypnotic” in the title. It’s truth in advertising: This drums-guitar duo of Tennessee brothers know how to zone out – from the two-chord scuzz-Ramones blitz of “Staring At the Wall” to Weezerian sludge-pop like “Dark Energy” to “Hypnotic Winter,” where drummer Jamin Orrall’s Kraut-rock pulse undergirds singer-guitarist Jake’s driving trance-strum. Hypnotic Nights is a little more stoner-y than last year’s speed-crazed We Are the Champions, and it’s got a good-natured sense of slacker irony; covering Black Sabbath’s grand piano ballad “Changes” so it sounds like it was recorded in a haunted house perfectly splits the difference between homage and satire.
Related• Photos: Random Notes
