As I was flipping through the vinyl at Minneapolis’ Extreme Noise Records I had my eyes peeled for any local bands, something I generally try to do when visiting shops in cities outside of Seattle.  The cover of Mystery Date’s New Noir caught my eye, looking all old-timey and mod-ish, and when I learned they were from Minneapolis I made the decision to buy a couple of their records sound unheard.

First up was 2014s Love Collector, which is actually a compilation of the band’s earlier output all squeezed onto one cool white splattered record.  It’s got a lot of pop-punk flavor in a sort of Elvis-Costello-meets-Blink-182 kind of way, uptempo without being fast and with guitar work that runs the gamut from rock to rockabilly.  2015s New Noir, an all-new-material LP, continues with the same general sound, but the pace picked up dramatically.

You can give Mystery Date a listen on their Bandcamp page HERE.  Personally, I’m more partial to their earlier stuff on Love Collector – I find the slightly slower tempo more approachable and conducive to being able to better hear the nuances of their music.