PHERN “Cool Coma” (Fixture Records)




Cool Coma is the debut album by Phern, a five piece band out of Montreal, Canada. This band is really great and really strange. I listened to the entire cassette while I was walking to get dinner a few nights ago. After the first listen, I wasn’t entirely sure what to think. Most of their songs have ghost like vocals with guitar that isn’t exactly twanging, but it’s close. Their songs get going the second they start, and they don’t stop for anything until it’s done.

I can’t quite put my finger on a way to describe their sound because it’s really something I haven’t heard before. They use typical formulas for the composition of their songs, but the instrumentation makes it sound as if they might be using thousands of dollars worth of amps and pedals, or it could be the oldest, cheapest, worst gear they could find. I truly can’t tell. What I can tell you is that this band has a very unique quirk in their sound that makes me keep coming back to try to figure out what it is. Whatever it is, I’m on board.




- Garrett Douglas