Mild High Club
Timeline
CIRCLE STAR/STONES THROW
7/10
Maybe it’s just a case of all the good ones being taken, but we are definitely living in an era of bad band names. No matter, though, as band names are one thing and music is another, and it actually makes for a pleasant surprise when a new group finds a way to transcend the stupidity of their name with a musical identity that does all the talking. Example: Mild High Club, Alexander Brettin’s home-recording project that stirs the same freak pot as eccentrics like R. Stevie Moore and Ariel Pink. The latter of those influences appropriately makes an appearance on “The Chat,” the final track on Mild High Club’s full-length debut Timeline, but traversing through the earlier spliff musk to get to that finale is a delight just the same. Yes, Brettin doesn’t outwardly take himself too seriously. These days, that’s an asset, not a shortcoming. Matter of fact, the name kind of fits.
