Surviving the Quiet

They've opened for the Fall, played Pixies tribute shows, and recorded with a member of Girls Against Boys, and yet they act as if all this was the only logical thing to do for a band based out of London. Thus, like Feeder or Raging Speedhorn before them, Seafood is one of those British bands who responds to the influx of overseas nu-metal and Yank boy bands by sounding more American than most Americans. "Guntrip" is antagonistic and infirm, like Dinosaur Jr. crawling out of flaming car wreckage. "Easy Path" has the obverse timbre of Madder Rose or Sebadoh. Then again, they're not always going for vitriol. Often, the lead singer unclenches long enough to sing with tweezing shame ("Belt") and the band suppresses the instinct to throttle like an Urge Overkill record, lending an unfashionable and sensitive edge to an album otherwise made by people trying so hard to displease the British mainland by producing songs like they belong on MTV's Alternative Nation ("Folksong Crisis," "Led By Bison"). Clearly, the attempt to make Surviving the Quiet rival the output of '90s American independents is like resolving to fix a crick in your neck with a guillotine, but Seafood does uncensored transatlantic reduplication surprisingly well.