Review: Metal Hearts | Socialize

It's hard to get around the fact that the principles of Baltimore-based indie duo Metal Hearts are so young, so we'll just address it head on. Many acts comprised of those positioned for their teenage tour de force often uselessly busy themselves with trite love yelping and other over-emotive musical endeavors. For whatever reason, Metal Hearts' indie savants Anar Badalov and Flora Wolpert Checknoff, aged 18 and 19 respectively, for the most part avoid such youthful misteps on their debut full-length Socialize (the track "Midnight Sun" is a little borderline, but the good in the set far outweighs the potentially sappy). Instead, Metal Hearts smartly lace together spare compositions with thoughtful dueling guitars, canned (but certainly not stale) beats and the occasional flourish. This set's title track is a subdued mix of Archer Prewitt-style longing and Evens or For Carnation-level intensity. On a purely emotional level Socialized is music for frigid winter drives, and the fact that we are only hearing it now, some six weeks after its February release, is a bit of a personal let-down. That said, the set is strong enough that we expect we'll still have it on the IPod come next winter. Check out the title track and "Foothills" at the band's page at the Suicide Squeeze web site here. And look for the band to hit your local bandstand shortly, as Metal Hearts will spend much of the next two months traversing North America.

[Buy Socialize from Insound]

04/14 Wilkes-Barre PA, Backstage Enterprises
04/15 New York NY, Pianos
04/16 New Haven CT, BAR
04/17 Boston MA, Afterhours @ Northeastern University
04/18 Brooklyn NY, North Six w/ Jana Hunter
04/20 Pittsburgh, PA -- Brillobox
04/22 London, ON -- Call the Office
04/23 Toronto, ON -- Lee's Palace
04/24 Montreal, QC -- Club Lambi
04/26 Athens, OH -- the Union
04/27 WOXY.COM in-studio @ 1:00PM
04/27 Detroit, MI -- the Belmont
04/28 Beloit, WI -- Beloit College
05/01 Des Moines, IA -- Vaudeville Mews
05/02 Iowa City, IA -- KRUI in-studio @ 3:00PM
05/02 Iowa City, IA -- Gabe's Oasis
05/03 Champaign, IL -- Canopy Club
05/04 St. Louis, MO -- Hi-Pointe
05/05 Lawrence, KS -- Replay Lounge
05/06 Denver, CO -- Hi-Dive
05/07 Salt Lake City, UT -- Captain's Quarters
05/10 Seattle, WA -- Chop Suey
05/12 Vancouver, BC -- Pat's Pub
05/16 Fargo, ND -- the Aquarium
05/22 Boston, MA -- Middle East
05/23 New York, NY -- Knitting Factory Main Space
05/24 Philadelphia, PA -- First Unitarian Church
05/25 Cleveland, OH -- Grog Shop
05/27 Chicago, IL -- the Metro
05/28 Minneapolis, MN -- Triple Rock
05/29 Lawrence, KS -- Granada
05/30 Denver, CO -- Marquis Theater
06/01 Seattle, WA -- Neumos
06/02 Portland, OR -- Hawthorne Theater
06/03 Roseville, CA -- the Underground
06/04 San Francisco, CA -- Cafe du Nord
06/05 Los Angeles, CA -- Troubadour
06/06 San Diego, CA -- the Casbah
06/08 Fresno, CA -- the Belmont
06/09 Anaheim, CA -- Chain Reaction
06/10 Phoenix, AZ -- the Brickhouse
06/11 Tucson, AZ -- Skrappy's
06/13 San Antonio, TX -- the Sanctuary
06/14 Houston, TX -- Walter's on Washington
06/15 Dallas, TX -- Gypsy Tea Room
06/17 Nashville, TN -- Rocketown
06/18 St. Louis, MO -- Creepy Crawl