It’s impossible to have a discussion about New York-based Demander without bringing up the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, The Breeders or Sleater-Kinney. This female-fronted trio is high energy pop mania anchored by Karen Kanan Correa’s velvety-smooth vocals and a kick-ass urgent groove powered by Sivan Harlap’s drums. Jared Scott’s guitar is relentless, lending an almost proggy dynamic that’s surprising in a hard pop trio. Demander takes the best of indie rock attitude and weaves it into harmony, hooks and delectable well-crafted songs about the wicked world. Especially track 3, “Wicked World.”
Based purely on the instrumentation and vibe (spartan and snotty respectively), Demander COULD have slipped into the angst-ridden, gritty riot grrrl role of a Bikini Kill, but they instead opt for more of an elegant perusal of clean, shiny pop like some other radio-ready modern new wave revivalists (think OK Go). Put another way, they rock out hard but they’re kinda classy about it.
With just five songs in fifteen minutes it’s easy to pick stand-out tracks, and that would be “samthurman” and “Porte Cochere.” The former is clean, fresh, fun and energetic, a smarmy torch song that you’ll be singing in the shower after just a few listens. The latter is a chugging, crunchy power train of pure pop aggression that totally captures the high octane energy of Demander’s live show. (Lexi Kahn)
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