Vacation “Zen Quality Seed Crystal”

sfilzen — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 19:46:37 +0000

Vacation “Zen Quality Seed Crystal” 2019. Salinas Records. Garagey, gritty noise pop from Cincinnati, Zen Quality Seed Crystal is listed as an EP on Vacation’s Discogs page, but with nine fully realized songs, I’m not sure why (maybe it’s because it’s at 45rpm). If counted as an LP, it would be their 6th or 7th full-length release. My top tracks include the locomotive, chunky guitar opener “Hole That Once Held a Screw,” noisy dream-popped “Captain Unsensible,” the fuzzy garage rocker “Tricks of the Big Cat Trade,” and the weird yet hypnotic beat of “Professor Messenger.” I’m less crazy about the waltzing, fun-housed “Me and Mr Bathory” – it’s a bit ear-grating – and while “Capitol Drive” is really decent, it feels pretty formulaic pop-punk especially when put into context of most of the rest of record which has a more experimental, intentional lo-fi (or rather “mid-fi” in their words) sound – think recording in the stairwell of a cold industrial warehouse while singing into a cardboard tube. That said, they probably played this track when we saw them in April 2022 at the Cactus Club: it most likely ripped hard and I danced my a** off.

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Vacation “Existential Risks and Returns”

sfilzen — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 17:53:03 +0000

Vacation “Existential Risks and Returns” 2021. Salinas Records. Gritty garage pop punk from Cincinnati. We caught Vacation at Cactus Club this past Friday night – it was our first time seeing them (they’ve been around since 2009). My friend and front-row short girl buddy Claire pestered me to go to the show and I am so glad that we did – it was excellent! I hadn’t listened to them before but previewed Existential Risks on Bandcamp prior to the performance and picked up the LP (their seventh) at the merch table.

They put on a super high-energy show: loud and tight with lots of rock and roll moves:

Vacation at Cactus Club: the bassist catching some serious air

I nabbed a shot of the setlist at the end of their set (another audience member was going to grab it but one of the Vacation guys was all like, “No we need that for the next show” — this Milwaukee performance was the second-to-last on their current tour).

Vacation played a couple of my top tracks from Existential Risks and Returns including my favorite, the hypnotic, tense and slinky “Controlled Burn” as well as the LP opener “Colored By Numbers” and “Ripe.” Other favorites from Existential Risks and Returns are “Liberty Tax Statue Man” which feels like a mix of The Who, Bachman–Turner Overdrive and Velvet Underground, “Quantum Cafe” and the killer all-out rocking album closer “Road Kill Cactus.”

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Vacation “Zen Quality Seed Crystal”

Vacation “Existential Risks and Returns”