#urinal cake

Chura came up in a rambunctious Detroit DIY scene, playing house shows and home-taping cassettes for a couple of years after dropping out of art school. Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo heard a couple of songs and invited her on tour, and it’s easy to see why he’d intuit a kindred spirit. In fact, if you wanted to restart the lo-fi 1990s with minimal materials, Chura and Toledo might be the two sticks you’d rub together. Yet, it seems that both of these two artists have considerable headroom, and any retro revival, however devoutly wished, might head off into an entirely different direction.

In Messes, I’m hearing plenty of scrappy, sardonic, guitar-slashing indie rock – “Spotted Gold” stands out --  but also other things. Chura’s voice gains clarity and sophistication on the slower songs, sounding a little bit like Karen O in “You,” that is, a punk girl in a sequined dress. You could make a connection to Chrissie Hyndes in the wobbly urgency of “Faded Heart,” a tough-but-tender anthem that stakes a claim on getting over things even as it mourns them. “Messes” shimmers with a dream-pop gloss sort of like Cocteau Twins, and “Becoming Shadows” teeters into blues-garage a la the Moaners. In short, Chura has the knack of sounding exactly like herself in a lot of different ways, which is a useful trait for making the jump to indie rock ubiquity.  Keep an eye on this one.