Sub Pop Records

MALE BONDING

Initial contact with Endless Now triggers a quandary rather like that faced by the wise owl in those old Saturday morning Tootsie Roll Pop commercials: how many listens does it take before you start singing along with these new Male Bonding songs? One time? Two? If you make it to three, you have either a will of iron or an ear of tin. These are eleven selections- plus a wee reprise- imbued with the fierce urgency of now, and catchy as all get-out.

Life has moved at a fast clip for this trio from London’s Dalston neighborhood since the 2010 release of their debut album, Nothing Hurts. The rest of the year was filled with relentless touring across Europe and the UK, miles and miles of American blacktop, and a volcano-mandated sojourn in the unfamiliar climes of Los Angeles. A few of the new tunes were written and road-tested during this period. “I wrote the lyrics to ‘Carrying’ on a flight back from New York to London, then wrote the music as soon as I got back to my room,” recalls guitarist John Arthur Webb. “It has dual citizenship.”

As the winter holidays finally arrived, the boys stopped touring-but kept working. “I remember sitting in my room a lot, holding either a cup of tea or a guitar, with the TV on in the background,” continues John. “Sometimes I would hold both.” Songs poured forth as Christmas came and went. “When we reconvened in the new year we suddenly had more than an album’s worth of songs that John brought to us,” bassist Kevin Hendrick remembers. They knocked the best of the lot into shape with customary haste, then packed…