REVIEWED: The Scoop Outs - "Scoop Outs"

Named the Reader’s Choice for Best Band in the Coast’s 2013 Best of Halifax survey, this alt-folk rock trio known as The Scoop Outs hail from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, but don’t be too quick to slap a “Darkside” label on these lads, as from their point of view, it’s music regardless of what side of the harbor it was recorded on.  Their debut full-length was released a mere three days before Santa needed his order of discs that he used to spread the word of the Scoop Outs by stuffing them in the stockings of all the boys and girls who love the scrappy alt-rock/punk DIY aesthetic which brims with an youthful exuberance.

This is an album which would have caused a number of ears to perk up during the “New Seattle” Sub-Pop boom of the early-mid nineties as there are definite odes to both Nirvana (“Train Station”, “Wet Shoes”) and The Meat Puppets (“Long Way Home”, “Still Here”) contained within. Upon pressing play you may find the album to be somewhat disjointed and that could be due in part to the infectious energy which is exuded through this collection of 14 tunes which careen through punk, pop, rock and folk genres.  It isn’t until the third or fourth spin through where the tracks begin to gain an adhesiveness which makes this feel less like a mix-tape and more like a cohesive set of tracks.   There are moments of this breakneck pop/punk pace, which is immediately followed by a track where the brakes are slammed on and the sound veers left into a sweetly melodic pop-folk tune, it is a jarring experience the first few times through the album.

It’s not hard to imagine why the readers of the Coast voted The Scoop-Outs as the Best Band for the 2013 survey, due to the fact that if the band could harness even a quarter of the energy they exhibited in the studio on stage, the crowd wouldn’t stand a chance, they’d be left panting in a crumpled mess of humanity on the venue floor.  If this is just the beginning for The Scoop-Outs, I can’t wait to see where they go from here.   

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Written by  Trevor Savory