Another listener to The Long Afternoon's "An Index of Maladjustments" Falls Prey to This Psychedelic Menace

Another listener to The Long Afternoon's "An Index of Maladjustments" who fell prey to the group's insidious psychedelic menace.

Another review of An Index of Maladjustments arrived, this one from local Knight-Ridder newspaper The Centre Daily Times.  Really nice review, and the writer Dan Kunz clearly understood what we were trying to do on this record.

He also uses the phrase “psychedelic menace” to refer to our work!  Feels good.  Psychedelic menace is EXACTLY what we going for on that one.

Plus, there were no gratuitous mentions of Urban Outfitters.  (Who just opened a store in State College, by the way — doubtless because we’re based here.)

Anyway, we’re grateful for the kind words and insights.  Here’s a link to The Long Afternoon review on the Centre Daily Times’ site, and in case that link goes away at some point, here’s what he wrote:

Perusers of the Facebook page for State College-by-way-of Pittsburgh indie rockers The Long Afternoon may note the band has slyly listed “Reuben Kincaid,” the fictional handler for the Partridge Family, as its own manager. No doubt The Long Afternoon can shake a tambourine better than Susan Dey, and the former’s music wouldn’t sound out of place in the 1970s, or any decade, for that matter.

On the band’s new effort, “An Index Of Maladjustments,” The Long Afternoon demonstrate a keen ear to combine — in moderation — all the aspects of “alternative rock” in the past 40 years that have worked: warm, jangly chord progressions; crashing punk passages; the “grunge” and “shoegaze” genres before they had names; and songwriting that eludes pretension and simplicity.

Don’t label them as ’derivative, though; Commanding a quietly distinguished presence in Pennsylvania’s indie-rock scene since the mid ’80s, there’s a good chance The Long Afternoon has preceded many bands of their ilk.

Guitarist, singer, songwriter and sole original member Eston Martz anchors his tunes with cryptic lyrics (such as “We have a high admission, but you can pay with perfect teeth” on “Joni’s Wire”).

The instrumentation and chemistry between Martz, guitarist J.P. Mulley, drummer Greg Elliot, and bassist Jeff Edmunds is raw and rich, from the radio-ready pep of “Better Now” to the post-hardcore crescendos of “Casual Transmission.” The title track slinks along with a  psychedelic menace.

“An Index Of Maladjustments” proves The Long Afternoon deserve a slice of the art-punk pie. Ever the elusive types, however, Martz and company are probably cool with you simply lending an ear for the time being.

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