Another Perfect Crime
Get Out!
(self-released)

Get Out!, the self-released debut CD by Seattle trio Another Perfect Crime, will amble its way into your ears and heart if you give it a few spins. The 10-song disc—mixed by Graig Markel (Head Like a Kite, Transmissionary Six, Animals at Night)—is the handiwork of Teresa Demel (guitar, vocals, acoustic guitar), Natalie Walker (bass, vocals, acoustic guitar), and Rebecca Gutterman (drums, guitar, e-bow). Four years ago, the trio bonded at Portland’s Ladies Rock Camp, and they’ve been honing their popwise chops ever since, issuing the Show Don’t Tell EP in 2008, which garnered them airplay on The End’s Locals Only program and on Hollow Earth Radio.

Get Out! reveals a group steeped in Northwest indie-label aesthetics, with the scrappy, lo-fi DIY spirit of K and Kill Rock Stars’ rosters infiltrating Another Perfect Crime’s own creations. Traces of Sleater-Kinney and the all-female ’90s Sub Pop band Jale—a sort of tart tunefulness and compositional concision—also seep into APC’s songwriting. (Commit to Another Perfect Crime, and go to Jale.)

“Paris” starts the album with a confident skipping rhythm and fuzzy yet bright guitar riffs that sweep you up in energetic flourishes while the ladies engage in intricate vocal interplay. “Ich bin ein Berliner” follows with some winsome K-style indie pop, peppered with peppy hand claps and capped with a soaring chorus. “Reckless” is perhaps the full-length’s peak, its melody swooping and swelling into a warm froth of strong, defiant femme-vital pop with the memorable unison-voiced refrain of “I’m reckless, I’m wicked/Erased, I don’t care.”

At times, Get Out! slides into slower, sentimental numbers that might cause some to long for the band’s more upbeat material. And “The Real American,” a caustic denigration of George W. Bush and Sarah Palin’s bigotry, idiocy, and general wrongheadedness over a lurching, martial rhythm, is a bit didactic. But on winsome, sparkly numbers such as “95%,” “Pirate,” and “A Warning for Marian Crane,” Another Perfect Crime show that they have the wiles to charm their way onto any indie-pop fan’s iPod. recommended

Another Perfect Crime play Thurs Jan 28, Comet, 9 pm, $6, 21+. With the Quit, Phantom Kicks, Elba.

Dave Segal is a journalist and DJ living in Seattle. He has been writing about music since 1983. His stuff has appeared in Gale Research’s literary criticism series of reference books, Creem (when...

6 replies on “Album Review: Get Into the Another Perfect Crime’s <i>Get Out!</i>”

  1. This is a great, great record. Strong tunes, great vocal work, a band poised to awesome things. Do yourself a favor and check this band out. See them now.

  5. Thanks for this well written article. I’ve been a fan of this group since their first CD was released. What draws me to their music is the profundity in the lyrics is equally matched with the vigor and intensity of the music. These three artistes have so much to be proud of.

    KUDOS AND HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

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