The project of longtime friends and collaborators
Tyler Fassnacht
and
Claire Nelson-Lifson
,
Proud Parents
are a scrappy Wisconsin-based garage pop combo with friendly melodic hooks and energetic tempos. A fixture of the Madison underground since 2015, they released a raucous full-length cassette debut called
Sharon Is Karen
before signing with esteemed local indie
Dirtnap Records
, which released this slightly more refined sophomore outing. Behind the rousing boy-girl vocal attack of frontpeople
Fassnacht
Nelson-Lifson
, the rhythm battery of
Alex Seraphin
(bass) and
Heather Sawyer
(drums) drive this carefree set to its generally brief conclusion. With only three of the 13 tracks exceeding a hefty three minutes, most of the other songs arrive in pleasing two-minute blasts of chunky riffs, tuneful hollers, and rickety beats. Although the band's co-leaders each take turns leading their own songs, more often than not, they swap lines back and forth, like on the self-titled opener "Proud Parents" -- one of those great underused rock traditions, naming a song after the band, especially on an eponymous album -- and the affably hooky "Something to Talk About." Self-described as "jangle-chunk,"
wear the term well, delivering plenty of the loose, jangling fun of garage with the hard, distorted bite of punk. ~ Timothy Monger