Field Hospitals
Ethel Green

janglepop / jangle rock / college rock / jangle / jangle pop / post-punk

The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based quartet, Field Hospitals, cracked through my usual veneer of procrastination and enticed me to approach them to ask if our Subjangle label could release this superb Ethel Green EP after just one listen, such is the instantaneous appeal these tracks have.

With a testosterone-addled core that is driven by a forceful, albeit lilting vocal delivery that is so very reminiscent of Michael Scott of The Waterboys, such power is juxtaposed with a sense of finely coiffured shambolic that also has hints of Subjangle label mates, The Wends.

At Ethel Greens' most jangly, Earthly Delights, Passion Play, and The Feeding Ground drive this vocal passion directly through the dulcet jangle rock riffs of the early R.E.M when they were still very much in college rock mode and as such, the feel of that almost 'celebratory', raw energy constantly pervades the Field Hospital aesthetic.

When the jangled riffs are somewhat diluted (although they never fully disappear), ithe band stomp down early indie rock roads, with the fuzz rock of Guided by Voices, harnessing the energy of A Broken Polaroid (Two Lovers), whereas Sister Jane and the title track move somewhere within the realms of Boylan Heights-era The Connells, with there very slight post-punk propensities.

As a debut release, this EP signals that the Field Hospitals have all the potential to rightly take their place at the same table as modern day jangle rock greats such as The Seams, Teenage Tom Petties, The Wends, John McCabe and Tough Age.