Terry Malts

California-based trio Terry Malts began in late 2009 when three members of the <a href="spotify:artist:3yY2gUcIsjMr8hjo51PoJ8">Smiths</a>-influenced indie pop quintet <a href="spotify:artist:1wq4xpEtC9OjBj6jUEM6dv">Magic Bullets</a> conceived the band as a side project. Guitarist/vocalist Corey Cunningham, bassist/lead vocalist Phil Benson, and drummer/vocalist Nathan Sweatt eventually opted to concentrate on Terry Malts full-time, and <a href="spotify:artist:1wq4xpEtC9OjBj6jUEM6dv">Magic Bullets</a> disbanded. Self-classified as "chainsaw pop," the group follows in lines drawn by classic fuzz-pop institutions like <a href="spotify:artist:1co4F2pPNH8JjTutZkmgSm">the Ramones</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4rjlerN21ygkIhmUv55irs">Jesus and Mary Chain</a>, pop-punk roots like <a href="spotify:artist:1FGH4Bh7g9W6V4fUcKZWp5">the Descendents</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:16bN8mhtDFdegWbg0z3s10">Hüsker Dü</a>, and the reverb-coated stable of late-2000s <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Slumberland+Records%22">Slumberland Records</a> bedroom pop. The band's first recorded outing was a six-song cassette on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Loglady+Records%22">Loglady Records</a> in 2010, followed the next year by two 7" singles on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Slumberland%22">Slumberland</a>. In the following years, the band played sporadic gigs in the Bay Area and did several beer-soaked tours up and down the West Coast. Their first full-length album, Killing Time, was released in 2012. They returned in 2013 with their cheekily titled sophomore album, Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere. They followed in 2014 with the Insides EP, a four-song 7" that zoomed by in just over eight minutes. After taking a year to write new songs for their next album, the trio decamped to Monte Vallier's San Francisco studio to record. It was their first time in a studio and the cleaned-up sound fit the music they were making. They turned down the guitars, applied more care to the arrangements, and drew inspiration from '70s power pop artists like <a href="spotify:artist:3oFRpiLvaflFOVNxvsLrze">the Records</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:5G6M0zMrYh1mOMVzp7E0OW">Dwight Twilley</a>. Their third album, Lost at the Party, was released in October of 2016 by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Slumberland%22">Slumberland</a>. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi