February 22, 2022

Enumclaw - "2002"


Hailing from Tacoma, Washington, Enumclaw have shared their first new song of 2022 and announced that they've signed with Luminelle Recordings with a debut full-length expected this summer.

Last year, Enumclaw garnered some attention with their excellent debut EP, entitled Jimbo Demo (one of my favorites of 2021), which was a wonderful throwback to the indie-rock heyday of the '90s in the Pacific Northwest. Today, the band has shared a new song called "2002" that continues to channel that stellar sound. Scruffy, bleary sound waves dominate the tape-hiss indulgence of this quartet and prolongs their aesthetic of a certain kind of nostalgia that feels a bit out of line with so many of their peers. While many may be living in the twenty-year cycle of retromania, Enumclaw takes on a straightforward approach to a post-grunge sound that skews more towards the hallmarks of Sub-Pop rather than the melodic and friendlier tone of the garage-rock revival from the year of which the song takes its name. The song is primed with energy and comes to a head with a squall of fuzz and distorted blasts of feedback that spiral into a sludged-out solo that you can already tell will wash over a crowd with pure force. Their live shows have already been gaining buzz as well with the band's free-spirited energy and overall excitement to be banging out some killer tunes feeling like a breath of fresh air each time they take the stage. Frontman Aramis Johnson does his best to lead the group through the blown-out gusts of noise and while he may not have the signs of a god-tier voice like some of the grunge heroes of the past, that doesn't cause him to hold back as the song comes to a close with a mighty howl that dissolves into the buzzing shreds of guitar. It's a scorching number that signals more great things are in store for this band in the future.

"2002" is available now from Luminelle Recordings.

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