Prog-punk?
Ghost Robot Ninja Bear is the solo project of Oscar Albis Rodriguez, (ex-Nakatomi Plaza front man), on this debut full-length album he enlists the help of Gunnar Olsen, Shawna Potter, Brendan Coon and Al Fair to bring his melodic rock tunes to life. The record certainly has energy by the bucket-load and plenty of catchy tunes - Oscar's gravelly vocals are backed by those exuberant punk-rock melodies, manic synths and great bass lines. There is also a hint of a nostalgic 90s sound in there too, Small Brown Bike and Super Chunk come to mind but also at times bands like Dinosaur Jr (for the indie fuzz) with the guitars moving from jangly indie style riffs to fast paced punk from song to song so there's plenty of variety to be had.
Ghost Robot Ninja Bear tends towards danceable melodies and sing- along moments for the most part, it might be tempting from a cursory listen to tag these tunes as feeling familiar, yes, you may feel like you've heard some of those riffs and melodies before but far from being content to stop at producing cracking melodic sing along moments, Rodriguez adds an undercurrent of something more interesting in here too which you uncover the more you listen. Sometimes quirky riffage slips in, the use of sythns add an extra layer sometimes totally transforming what could have been a straight forward rock number into something far more atmospheric (In The Helium Mines) and vocal harmonies are used effectively to give softer, sweeter tones.
Hopefully the quality of the tunes will be enough to tempt people past the punk-rock coating of this record, it is great to have those sing-along vocal lines, especially where he enlists the backing of great female harmonies on tunes like Obviously Midnight (which has a 90s tone) and softer moments like I Can't Decide which brings to mind Jimmy Eat World but there is more to this record which rewards repeated listens and could draw in fans from a wider spectrum of genres.