Bathing Resorts – Snacks (2014)

Whenever you walk up to a stranger and quickly ask them a question, you’re often met with an indecipherable avalanche of words. It’s like they’re readying their voice for a response after being suddenly shaken alive. Chicago’s Bathing Resorts’ less than nine minute, five-song EP Snacks starts off that way. Within seconds of pressing play on ‘Meat Stick’, the sound falls out, hits the listener’s ears, and the band is off to the start / stop races of noisy rock fury.

The band never lets up, never lets the listener catch their breath by staying on one musical idea for too long. Only two of the songs manage to be longer than two minutes, and just barely at that. Stick and move, stick and move! The noisy fake jazz parts come right after the up-tempo punky parts which are just seconds after establishing a mini-groove. The music jitters along.

Part of the reason for the frantic songs and delightfully unfocused musical ideas could be the choice of “fuel” the band is inspired by. Each song is named after junk food whether sweet (‘Frosted Honey Bun’) or salty (‘Cheese Puffs’). Who could, or would, want to play much longer than nine minutes if you’ve ran through all those ‘snacks’?

Bathing Resorts produce a dizzying noise of tempo shifting fast bursts; a fun sized bag of blissful joy and then…a nap. No need for a tenth minute. No need for a green leafy when the sweet and savory is what you really want.