In 2009, Bleeding Rainbow were called Reading Rainbow, and their MySpace address, lamentably, was "levarfuckingburton." They changed their name shortly afterward, because "we didn't want to get a cease and desist order from PBS," and because "we like the name Bleeding Rainbow better." Making the hobbled-ankle leap from one dubious, cutesy moniker to another in full view of your audience is, to put it bluntly, not a great way to ensure your future as a band.
They didn't break up, however, and over a few records, they've slowly sorted out who they are. Their new album, Interrupt, is a zippy, Superchunk-y set of buttoned-tight pop-rock songs that bounce nimbly on their heels for three or so minutes and then briskly exit. The album captures the band at a senior-year-in-high-school moment in their development: The fuckups and ill-fitting poses are all pretty fresh in the minds of everyone around them, but they've located the beginnings of adult poise and their future looks brighter than their past.
For one, Sarah Everton has found a powerful mid-register voice that she can belt with, one she leans into enthusiastically on the real-deal big choruses of of "Out of Line" and "Cut Up". Robi Gonzalez, the drummer for A Place to Bury Strangers, recorded the album with them and was promptly replaced by another drummer (Ashley Arnwine), and his work is a stiff shot of adrenaline. The rhythm section is pulled as tight as hotel bedsheets, Everton and Rob Garcia's vocals mesh neatly, and the tempo stays brisk. Everything on the album is busily competent and in cheerful working order, like a middle manager on their third cup of coffee making the late-morning rounds. The album is short and formulaic and bracing and, while it's playing, pretty great.
The band still doesn't have a distinct stamp, though; on "Monochrome," they remain enraptured by My Bloody Valentine, dripping distorted glimmers and pitch-bends all over song's edges. Being many things at once isn't a sin, of course, but Bleeding Rainbow aren't great at enough of those things to justify using up our time trying them out. The strained, shouty "Images" recalls Foo Fighter's "Monkey Wrench," and while "Monkey Wrench" is an excellent power-pop tune, the shouting does not flatter Garcia at all."I fall all the time," goes the chorus to "Cut Up," one of their punchiest and best songs. These guys may not be the most graceful outfit out there, but they are surprisingly scrappy, and they've picked themselves up from a couple of minor faceplants with aplomb.
