Ice Cream
Though American Breakfast has been laying waste to dive bars and basements across Chicago for close to five years with their patented brand or femme-fronted garage punk, this 7” record on Randy Records is actually their long awaited vinyl debut. And they explode out of the gate with Asscube, with guitars, bass, and drums all pushing forward at a breakneck speed through out the barely minute and a half song, sounding like The Shadows of Knight if they had heard The Ramones back in 1965. They lay back on the accelerator slightly on Ice Cream, finding a solid danceable groove early on and locking into it as the vocals and guitar dip in and out of a frenzy. It isn’t until the B-side that American Breakfast shows any mercy, with the heat turned all the way down, offering up the dreamy and atmospheric People I Know, a song that evokes visions of driving through the desert under the starts of a cold summers night. Each song is a hit on its own accord, but one thing that really helps set it apart is the impassioned vocals of French-born Laure Elie, whose inspired delivery coupled with her infectious French accent is simply incredible. You can really hear Laure putting all of herself and her emotions into each snarled line. And I can’t help but imagine some poor high school kid breaking into a cold sweat as he listens to the vocal bridge in Ice Cream, hearing Laure purr in a mixture of French and English, ending with “come on, baby, come on…” American Breakfast has been one of my favorite live bands for quite some time, so I am so happy to be putting out this debut 7” and sharing that love with the rest of you guys. I don’t see how anyone could listen to this and not want to have a copy of their own, so check it out!