Deal Casino
Nika
Reviewed by: Geno Thackara
The band’s named after a doubtlessly fine and respectable gaming establishment near the northern Jersey shore, while their newest release is named after the canine mascot you can often see popping up on their Tumblr page. If that seems like an unexpected but fun blending, well, so’s the music. They enjoy 80s hair bands, 70s punk and modern-day sunshine pop, and I’m sure there are other things in there I haven’t noticed. (There’s only so much you can get out of a quick EP after all.)
Nika packs all those things into a fairly solid appetizer. It kicks off with a hooky alt-rock singalong that might almost lead you to expect something breezy or poppy, but things aren’t quite that simple. “Bare Hands” continues the vibe with bright backing “ooh-ooh” and a melody that’s almost sugary, but then gets some nasty words thrown on top. They’ve always got a little attitude somewhere, which keeps coming out as the songs get more edgy and fuzzy with electricity.
They nail that classic hard-rock swagger most with “Red” which sounds tailor-made for a sweaty crowd in a thumping club. It feels like the point where a live set would start really taking off, but on record it’s already time to wind down instead. “Anything That’s Bad” coasts to a close in a cool smoky way that would be great at the end of a show. The two work fine here, although they’d work even better with another hour of rocking-out tunes in between.
Barely cracking the 15-minute mark, Nika is probably closer to single length than even EP length; it suggests a soundtrack for a fun time by the boardwalk, even if a play-through wouldn’t outlast your first bucket of fries. Still, it leaves the definite impression that you’d get a much fuller helping seeing the band live, so as an appetizer it handily does the job.
Rating: Bad-Ass
