Purple – (409)

Texas garage-rock trio Purple doesn’t hold back on their rambunctious, party-punk rager of a debut, (409).  The local area code-referencing rocker finds co-vocalists Taylor Busby and Hanna Brewer getting more than their hands dirty in this raw expression of adult angst.  (409) ain’t your kid brother’s adolescent rager, but rather the beading, sweaty outbursts of full-grown party animals.  For their debut, Purple offers a scatterbrained culmination of high energy anthems in the vein of something you may have found on Blackheart Records in the late 00’s.

Opener “Wallflower” kicks into high gear with co-vocalist Hanna Brewer’s unapologetic, in-your-face attitude and a salvo of crackling, grungy riffs.  Brewer channels a cross between the ever raspy and domineering Joan Jett and girlish, pitchy shouts of The Dollyrots.  As found in the choral apex, she’s a bubblegum meets booze type of woman with a raw set of pipes.  As seen soon thereafter in “Leche Loco,” Purple loves throwing some classic rock guitar licks into the mix.  The vibe is edgy with a loose dose of garage fuzz.  As the album unfolds, Brewer’s pairing with the heaviest, most reckless guitar grooves continues kicking up dirt in “Thirteen” and “DMT.”  Only “New Born” serves as a strong stylistic counter, rounding out her otherwise edgy performance.

Taylor Busby provides a strong but familiar male counter to Brewer’s nasally, smokey personae.  “Double Nickel” marks Busby’s first appearance on (409) and brings a distinctly Hot Hot Heat spasticity to the mix.  Meanwhile, “Head On The Floor” gets all low-and-slow with spikes of instrumental adrenaline, and “Liquor” injects some fast-paced old school-punk for good measure.  

While often working apart, Brewer and Busby come together on “Beach Buddy” with encouraging synergy.  The track channels the lazy, back-and-forth vocal stylings and fuzzy surfer stoner rock of Goons Of Doom.  The track shows that the band can ground itself in the sand as much as it can be the life of the party.

But the disc isn’t without it’s flaws – the biggest offender being Purple’s tendency to teeter over the cliff of reason for perhaps a little longer than one would advise.  In other words, the level of energy can tip from enthralling to exhausting with little warning.  No single track is to blame, just isolated pockets of intensity that tend to zap listeners of energy from time to time.  It all just boils down to pacing.  Overall though, (409) is well worth revisiting; like that friend that you agree with most of the time, but not always, you’ll never regret inviting Purple along for the ride.