album stream premiere: On the Dotted Line - Products
photo: Tessa Loeffler
Products is the Minneapolis supergroup of our dreams. The band, which contains members of the Florists and Frankie Teardrops, brought all of their amazing talents together and will release their debut recording On the Dotted Line via Heavy Meadow Records on September 7. Lucky for you, TGE has the exclusive stream below.
The album hits you from the beginning with the speedy and succinct opener "Nude Review." The gunning churn of guitar and drums never lets up for the track's nearly four minutes, even as vocals cry out, more speaking than singing, creating a spoken collage of images and ideals.
From a fuzzy unraveling that incites a riot in your heart on "Everest" to the smooth and measured chaos of "Second Set," the entirety of the record plays out as undeniably memorable and fun. It's a peek at something fresh; an exciting release filled with attitude and a much needed break from the standard garage rock/punk norms.
As Al of the band explained: "Each member of this group brings a very specific approach and perspective to what they do. There’s certainly a lot of overlap in taste, but we also have some fun lines in the sand and preferences that define each of us (in healthy and interesting ways, I might add). When we first got together, I would bring songs to the group and everyone would gradually fill the frame with their parts. As time has gone on however, we’ve really grown more collaborative in our writing process and I think you hear that on the recordings as well. Some of the songs on this record are straight-ahead sprints and others are a bit more shaggy. There’s a relative cohesiveness I hope, but it’s ultimately a document of this band being born and starting to figure itself out. This is not terribly complicated music we make. There’s instant gratification in there, but I also think this band has patience, and an appreciation for repetition and small details.
The lyrics on this first record tend to slide between blunt directness and something a little more intangible I think. We want you to bop, no doubt about it, but we also want to make art that looks critically at things like engagement v. escapism, identity, police brutality, toxic masculinity + gun violence. We operate under the idea of that all art is political, and we’ve tried to be very intentional with what we are putting into each of these songs. I’m really proud of this band, this record, and what we’ve been able to learn from each other, musically and otherwise."