"Brooklyn art-punk conglomerate Discreet Charms is proof that you can go home again, especially if home is the cool dive bar on the wrong side of town. The place where the grizzled intellectuals teach the new bohemians how to drink, fight and fuck. Punked-out, hard-rocking and adroit, Discreet Charms is the soundtrack to such sordid yet elevated undertakings.

Kicking off in 2023, the original trio of Jose Moreno (guitar/vocals/synth), Nate Knaebel (bass/vocals) and Tom Hyland (drums/vocals) came off like a fresh coat of paint on your favorite whip. Moreno plays with Portland, Maine-based Beefheart-ian outsiders Celebrity Handshake, while Knaebel once cavorted with indie rock royalty in Victoria Lucas. Hyland’s last band was underrated late ‘00s post-punkers Imaginary Icons, who even backed up the Homosexuals’ Bruno Wizard for a spell. You may also recognize these gentlemen under different monikers—Knaebel is Nate the K and Hyland is Tom Dash on freeform radio stalwart WFMU. With a line-up like that, you’d think Discreet Charms were sitting pretty, but when they added guitarist Theresa Smith everything locked into place. Smith’s CV highlights her time in scuzz-rockers Ballroom and avant-pop ensemble Home Blitz, two of NYC’s finest of the past decade. After dropping a cassette EP, Discreet Charms is now on the offensive with Delivery Model Stateholder Meeting.

Recorded by Matt Vanek and mastered by Mikey Young, Discreet Charms’ debut full-length is chock full of gritty but sophisticated rock ‘n’ roll, a couple of rocks dropped into your whiskey neat. Opening cut “The Man with a Cabriole Leg” sets the scene—in-the-pocket rocking by the band as Moreno relates a strange tale of furniture-assisted appendages and those who rely on them. Applying a fiction writer’s lens to his songs, Moreno’s narrators dispense observations in a weary manner, like existential detectives casually observing another sad, squalid scene. His lowkey intensity recalls Wall of Voodoo’s Stan Ridgway, while Knaebel’s turns at the mic (“Interview,” “FNP”) exposes an undercover wailer, like some weekend warrior garage-punk glam god. Mid-paced and methodical, yet buzzing with arcing synths and jagged guitar runs, ”The Man Without a Cemetery” conjures a Pere Ubu-like dust storm, with Moreno telling you a tale about some sap who “caught his clone climbing back into the incinerator.” “Rump State” makes excellent use of Hyland’s ‘verbed-out backing vocals and choppy Robert Quine-style guitar flourishes. On “House of Commons,” Moreno takes us back to early ‘80s England and weekly purchases of the New Musical Express. Apparently “Margaret Thatcher lost her favorite pink bikini,” so Moreno urges us to “smear the make-up of the New Romantics.” That’s Discreet Charms for you—clocking the ridiculous and the sublime as they make you shake your ass and hope everything will be fine. Delivery Model Stateholder Meeting is on track to becoming a bright spot for fiscal year 2025." — Erick Bradshaw (Spin Age Blasters with Creamo Coyl on WFMU)

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