Music Review: Terry Malts, Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere

By Less Lee Moore

Terry Malts isn’t a person, but a trio from San Francisco. Their new album, Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere, recalls the easy, breezy days of the early ’90s, before everything was labeled grunge and focused on that blond haired guy with blue eyes and everyone who went on to rip off his band.

No offense to that guy and his band, by the way, because I like them just fine, but there was a whole lot more to the decade than Nirvana. I had a lot of good times back then, and at the risk of sounding like your uncle who waxes nostalgic about the ’70s whenever he hears The Eagles, there was a lot of good music to accompany those times.

Which brings us back to Terry Malts, comprised of Phil Benson, Corey Cunningham, and Nathan Sweatt. Nobody Realizes is their second album and it’s perfect for when you’re in a grumpy mood about how much the world sucks.

Terry Malts gets that. Opening track “Two Faces” opens with an alarm bell and provides the absolute most important reason why a lot of jobs suck. “Life’s A Dream” continues the album’s preoccupation with how very much the world sucks. The album also has a great fondness for the sound of the early ’90s: people weaned on post-punk and hardcore who wanted to put their own spin on things.

“They’re Feeding” is a sarcastic stab at the people-as-zombies concept that is way more fun that it has any right to be. And, although “Buy Buy Baby” and “No Tomorrow” are a tad too on the nose, both musically and lyrically, Terry Malts has a few tricks up their collective sleeves. “I Was Not There” is like a modern version of Emily Dickinson ennui (no, really) and “Comfortably Dumb” trades in the fast tempos for an honest-to-goodness shoegaze vibe. They end things off with the sarcastic “Well Adjusted,” a quality track if I ever heard one.

At less than a half hour, it’s difficult to determine from Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere whether Terry Malts are nihilists or just realists, but that’s likely on purpose.

Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere was released on September 10 through Slumberland Records.