Grouplove: The Return Of Rock 'n' Roll

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In "Colours," the L.A. rock band Grouplove makes wild, thrilling and above all joyful noise. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Courtesy of the artist

In "Colours," the L.A. rock band Grouplove makes wild, thrilling and above all joyful noise.

Courtesy of the artist

Grouplove may be a band of twentysomething musicians, but their sound hearkens back to a time when they were still in diapers: the lo-fi, acidic noise of classic early-'90s alternative rock. On its raucous debut single "Colours," the Los Angeles band builds on the quiet-loud-quiet dynamic pioneered by bands like Pixies. The track kicks off as a lo-fi folk-infused ditty — complete with acoustic guitar and unassuming boy-girl vocal harmonies — before blooming into a hot electric anthem, with a booming backbeat worthy of Dave Grohl and an unhinged guitar riff reminiscent of Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis.

Singer Christian Zucconi even seems to pay direct homage to Kurt Cobain, recalling an eerie, surrealistic nightmare about a man who commits suicide because "he couldn't face the truth." But there's a bright side to his miserable tale, and Zucconi seems wise enough to know that self-inflicted death isn't the only way out. "It's the colors you have," he howls. "No need to be sad / It really ain't that bad."

This has been a fairly bleak year for rock bands, with the charts largely dominated by pop stars like Ke$ha, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry. But Grouplove demonstrates with "Colours" that the genre isn't dead — and that plenty of aspiring musicians still make wild, thrilling and above all joyful noise with little more than a guitar and a fuzzbox.