Pewter Cub- If You Can Hold Your Breath- Bellyache Records

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Kinda awkward when you get invited to play the Blowout just a week after you’ve broken up. Thankfully, Pewter Cub’s frontman guitarist and frontwoman bassist-singer forged ahead with their experimental pop style. At first they went far into left field with a punky-techno thing involving a shoddy drum machine, which was jettisoned when the group brought in a live drummer. On Breath, the trio goes heavy on atmospherics, traipsing into dark and tranquil dream-pop showers of reverb-laden guitars and breathy lullaby vocals, drawing the shades for a bedroom slow dance. There’s some classical, nostalgically tinged indie-rock jams on here, distinctively smacking of a 1992-ish, torn-denim vibe. But the jaunty “King Baby” is an inevitable charmer, a buoyant bass over jogging drum snaps and guitar.  —Jeff Milo