A music website seems like the wrong medium for a review of Prewar Yardsale. What I could best categorize their music as is “anti-folk”, or perhaps folk punk – their music doesn’t sound “punk”, but it’s definitely made with DIY ethos. Writing up their EP, black and blue, on a music website seems removed removed from the context of the music itself: it’s music that should be traded in the form of obscure tape, or experienced during one of the band’s many shows around the NYC area.
The dual male-female vocals of Mike Rechner and Dina Levy suggest sort of a Brian Jonestown Massacre dynamic. Mike and Dina alternate between songs or sing at the same time – 3 of the 4 band members play guitar. “where did you go” is the third song on the EP. Dina’s singing is flat and frank, but also quite beautiful. The only instrumental accompaniment (besides soft horns in the beginning) is two clean guitars chiming in the background – perhaps The Velvet Underground would be the most accurate comparison.
What’s great about black and blue is that none of the songs are good indicators of what the others will sound like. Each song is a distinctly different composition. Prewar Yardsale switches between acoustic guitar and electric guitar as seamlessly as it switches between vocalists. On one song you might hear sounds of a horns or tapping of a tin can, never to return again, just as necessary as it is fleeting.
You can hear the entire EP on bandcamp.
