The Thousands

The new Panel of Judges album BAD VIBRATIONS shuffled into my room last night and bummed a smoke. It’s been three weeks and it hasn’t done the dishes once, and would rather construct elaborate Jenga-like towers of cigarette butts then empty the ashtray. It’s the bad housemate you can’t help but love.

Scuzzy and disheveled, BAD VIBRATIONS’ Beat Happening-style-minimalist-pop is so charming, so thankfully un-professional, so gleefully egalitarian, it’s a breath of fresh air. It invites rather than excludes.**Running the gamut from low-fi strum and mumble a la Silver Jews (‘Coffin Or Car’), to eerie surf pop (‘All This Could Be Yours’), to fuzzed out early Dinosaur Jr. (‘The Prince’), BAD VIBRATIONS encapsulates the neighborhood charm of all your favourite indie rock – without any pretense.