Bare Wires: Yesterday And Today

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Bare Wires' "I Love You Tonite" barely breaks two minutes, but it's packed with graceful twists and turns.

Courtesy of the artist

Bare Wires' "I Love You Tonite" barely breaks two minutes, but it's packed with graceful twists and turns.

In music, trends are always rising and fading in popularity, but nostalgia never dies. Short-sighted music fans might scoff at the revivalism of, say, Ariel Pink, but plenty of acts have built healthy careers around the art of bringing back the past. Garage rock is no exception: In fact, the genre is experiencing one of its strongest comebacks in years, with bands ranging from the skuzzy chaos of Black Lips to the concise pop hooks of the late Jay Reatard.

California's Bare Wires reside somewhere in the middle of that spectrum: The music is clean enough to be catchy, but ready to play dirty, too. "I Love You Tonite" features a muddy sound and vocals mixed too low for their own good, but the song showcases a sound that references yesterday while living for today.

"I Love You Tonite" barely breaks two minutes, but it's packed with graceful twists and turns, while the speedy intro and understated verses make for a surprising contrast. And, while plenty of subtleties get buried in the haze, the memorable hook and guitar solo make them worth digging for again and again.