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Geronimo! Take the Plunge, Dreaming all the Way

Posted in Reviews on July 14th, 2010 by JJ Koczan

Young and punctuated, the Chicago outfit Geronimo! do on their self-released debut full-length, Fuzzy Dreams, what American bands do best: they blend genres. In the case of these nine tracks, the trio pulls together the warm distortion of stoner and desert rock and pairs it with an indie or post-punk mindset that gives Fuzzy Dreams a balance of chic presentation and sincerity of delivery. Chicago being a hotbed of post- this and that, it’s not surprising that a trio with such a progressive mindset and focus on individuality would emerge, but it’s worth noting right off the bat that while the bulk of the Windy City’s noted acts of the last few years have had a blisteringly heavy edge to them, Geronimo! are every bit as sonically tender as they are tonally weighted.

It’s a balance they toy with throughout Fuzzy Dreams. In fact, the first 35 seconds of opener “Thunderbattles” pretty much lays the Geronimo! playbook right at your feet. Massive backwards guitar distortion builds up from silence and soon gives way to quiet, individually plucked notes. Those notes eventually lead to the song itself, a catchy beginning for Fuzzy Dreams with a riff that could have come off CKY’s first album or some lost ‘90s alternative masterpiece, but shows Geronimo!’s youth nonetheless in the form of a bouncing back and forth between low and high notes that cuts back on the groove of KJ Blaze’s guitar. “Thunderbattles,” as the name might suggest, is on the heavier end of Geronimo!’s output, with Blaze leading the way on guitar and also adding vocals to those of Benjamin Grigg, who also handles keys and the occasional trumpet and trombone, while Matt Schwerin mans the drums and also does backing vocals. There’s bass on the record, but nobody’s credited with it.

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