Album Review: Gainesville band UV-TV releases ‘Glass’

In March, Gainesville-based punk trio UV-TV released their debut full length album, “Glass.” Having spent the last couple of years making their rounds through Gainesville clubs and going on brief tours of the East Coast, UV-TV made a name for themselves in Florida. However, 2017 finds these three Gainesville punks thinking bigger. They signed to Canadian-based label Deranged Records, which released “Glass,” and they are currently on a tour of the U.S. lasting about a month, which will be their longest to date.

You have probably seen UV-TV play around town before, opening for touring acts like B Boys or Parquet Courts, or playing smaller benefit shows at the CMC or the Atlantic. Maybe you’ve even seen UV-TV’s members working at Pop-A-Top downtown. Comprised of Rose Vastola, Ryan Hopewell and Ian Bernacett, UV-TV is a trio of gawky 20-somethings. They play noisy, feedback-driven punk songs with occasional ambient breaks.

“Glass” opens with fast and loud power chords on “Wasting Away.” The instrumentals’ immediacy hearkens back to classic hardcore punk bands like Minor Threat or Circle Jerks, but just as quickly as the track begins, its traditional punk instrumental is offset by vocalist/bassist Vastola’s saccharine vocals. Her vocal relationship with the rest of the band’s sound on this track, and on much of the album, is reminiscent to Blinda Butcher’s work on My Bloody Valentine’s “Loveless.” Though surrounded by a harsh and noisy instrumental, its sweetness is a welcome addition to the band’s sound.

“Glass” finds UV-TV experimenting with style, from noisy bubblegum pop punk tracks reminiscent of Peach Kelli Pop on “You’re High,” to Sonic Youth-inspired dissonance on the title track, to Yeah Yeah Yeahs-style shrill and hypnotic guitar riff on “Hear.”

While much of “Glass” shows UV-TV riffing on short and simple pop punk song structures, the moments when the band hits their stride are often the least characteristic of this. UV-TV will occasionally embrace the downbeat — the slow-burning meandering instrumentals on tracks like “Severed Hand,” and this is when they are the most interesting to listen to. It’s these long plays that showcase the strong chemistry between the members of this band, from the call-and-response vocals of Bernacett and Vastola, to the heavy grooves in rhythm between Vastola and drummer Hopewell.

“Glass” closes on “Dissolve”: a six-minute-long soundscape that slowly builds in intensity toward one long climax of textured strumming and conceited guitar noodling. This big rock-star crescendo is then sped up exponentially until the slow tempo reaches for speed and energy paralleled by the first tracks of the album. In this theatrical final track, UV-TV gives their listeners closure. “Glass” comes full circle by its finale, and it still managed to stay fresh and interesting throughout.