by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)

It’s been two years since The Blind Shake released their last record, and while the fate of that legendary band is somewhat less than certain, the brothers Blaha have stayed active. While Jim Blaha released a new album from Jim and the French Vanilla last year, it’s been Mike Blaha that has kept up their former band’s ever prolific pacing with BLAHA, a solo project that released no less than three albums in 2017 and a pair of singles. The music of BLAHA (which now records and functions as a quartet) picks up where The Blind Shake left off on Celebrate Your Worth, with their roots firmly in tangled post-punk while exploring psych, power-pop, garage, and surf punk. It’s convulsive and infectious, swirling around in circles that pound and groove with force and undiminished groove.

After storming 2017 with new music, the band will release Survival Climb, their first album of 2018, on December 1st via No Coast Records (Digital Leather, Proud Parents, The Hussy) on cassette with a digital bonus track. The first single and title track is a propulsive stomper of knotted rhythms and breezy distortion, Blaha’s vocals syrupy and melodic. The band’s whole song coils itself so tightly its collective head could pop off at any moment, but they press forward riding head first into the dense and jittery rhythm, working the guitars’ colossal stoner-surf vibe directly into the hook-filled mayhem.

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