EZTZ - Calling Out (2015, Captured Tracks) - a brief overview

These days, it's almost wholly unrealistic to expect any newcomers to "reinvent the wheel," as it were, but I laud those who trick that tire out with a fresh, and dare I day inspired hubcap now and then.  EZTV are yet another in a long, sustained volley of Brooklyn talent.  For better or worse that borough has become a ceaselessly ubiquitous hub over the last decade-and-a-half, so much so the indie rock cognoscenti have become dismissive of anything emanating from Greenpoint, Williamsburg or Park Slope.  Pity on them if them if that's the case, 'cos this trio gracefully transcend the brunt of all that beardo muck and artsy ennui.  

Calling Out is forged on a lean and clean power-pop bedrock in the manner of classicist practitioners the Shoes, albeit EZTV's thing is less rote and predictable.  That factor alone should propel a good number of you through the door, but this trio ply that effective and gratifying rubric to the post-punk "lite" tones of contemporaries Real Estate, and to a lesser extent Big Troubles.  Couple this sonic pastiche with the buoyancy of the Shins and you've got an an irresistible formula on your hands, one that will satiate fickle hipsters and your more pedestrian types alike.  Melding jangly accessibility with mild but edgy nuances, "The Light," "Trampoline" and "Soft Tension" could logically have a production credit of Mitch Easter or Tom Verlaine thumb-tacked to them.  EZTV even manage to eke out some lightweight Byrds-ian harmonies, and a modicum of Sloan's chemistry while they're at it, all bundled up in a crisp, lucid context.  If you find yourself pining for more than the twelve songs occupying Calling Out, I should mention the CD version contains two unlisted cuts, one of which, ironically enough, "Calling Out" somehow failing to make it onto the album proper that it shares it's moniker with.

Check out "The Light" via Soundcloud below.  Calling Out is yours to have, hold and hear from Captured Tracks, Amazon and iTunes.