Funny how the good intentions behind putting togetherdifferent parts can create something wholly different than expected. TheMadison high schoolers of Modern Mod claim as influences the sort of garagerock favored by Little Steven Van Zandt on “Underground Garage” and surf music. The result heard on theirKickstarter-funded debut, Tunnels, reverberates with the aforementionedsounds.
However, with the guitar not “wet” as Dick Dale andplaying not wild as the most crazed bands on the garage-rock compilation Nuggets,the fetching result even more strongly speaks of a musical diet high in ’80sU.K. indie pop. Mild manners and copious jangle entwine toward fairlysophisticated sentiments on the edge of adulthood and precocious nostalgia. Ifsinger Emily Massey sounds conflicted with unresolved emotion throughout muchof her band’s 10 songs, she offers an edge of truthfulness that pop music bypeople her age seldom musters. Modern Mod have insinuated themselves into theircity’s music scene to a prominent level in short order, and at the rate ofmaturation heard here, a greater public likely awaits them if they so desire.
