It may be 2013, but on their debut LP, Taco Leg are rollin’ and scratchin’ back through time. It’s a story we’ve heard many, many times before: young, angry kids pick up some guitars, set up shop in someone’s garage, and pretend it’s 1981. This is the story of Taco Leg’s self-titled debut, and it’s obvious within just the first few seconds: a scratchy guitar riff, an ominous drum beat, and suddenly, you’ve arrived in post-punk paradise. “Raiders,” a song about the Indiana Jones classic Raiders of the Lost Ark, sounds like a lost basement recording that’s been sitting in a box for thirty years. The rest of Taco Leg? Pretty much the same.
Diversity isn’t a concept that the Perth, Australia based trio quite understand, but brevity sure is; no song on Taco Leg passes the two-and-a-half minute mark. Almost each track opens with a similarly aggressive guitar riff, soon followed by the deep, droll vocals of frontman Andrew Murray. He sings, for the most part, simple tales of a day at the beach (“Hot One”) a day at the park (“Across the Park”) and a bad date (“Shut it Down.”) Murray is rarely happy, which works quite well when you consider the dark, deadpan background instrumentals of each song. On the latter aforementioned track, he tells of his woes (“I went on a date/Stayed out far too late… I wish I had stayed home and watched TV”) in just over one minute flat.
The album’s conformity has a few– just a few– exciting moments when the band decide to diverge slightly from this straight, dimly lit path. Taco Leg try their hand at whimsy on the quick, cheeky “Find Me.” “Do you want to play a game of hide and seek?” Murray asks, playfully. “Well come with me, and please don’t peek.” It’s sort of nonsensical, but fun nonetheless. But the fun never lasts long. “I… I….I just can’t decide,” goes the familiar, youthful ballad “I Can’t Decide.” You’ll smell the angst, hormones, and dissatisfaction from all the way across the world.
As Taco Leg nears its end, the album reaches perhaps its best and most fitting song, “The Future.” Its lyrics are a series of questions familiar to all people, but especially those of the chronologically challenged variety: “What’s happening? Who’s involved? Where’s it headed in the future?” The answer? Who knows. Taco Leg are young, so while their debut album feels immature and a tad repetitive, that’s sort of the point.