Pinkston

Last time I can remember seeing Pinkston guitarist Josh Daugherty, he was sprinting past me toward the Gypsy Tea Room bathroom at the Dooms U.K. reunion gig a couple of months ago. Actually, as it turns out, he didn't quite make it past me or my just-purchased bourbon-and-whatever, spearing both of us like a tackling dummy in two-a-days. Last time I can remember seeing singer and erstwhile bassist Beth Clardy Lewis, she and her husband were walking their pair of basset hounds near my house, a sweet kind-of Norman Rockwell moment, except with a few more tattoos. No reason to bring up either occasion, except that after listening to Pinkston's full-length debut, All That Causes Bruises (released by Last Beat Records last month), I was reminded of both. In the headlong urgency of songs like "Unlatch," "The Quitter in Me" and "The Sea Meets the Sky." In the tender touch of "This Time Next Year" (as in, "Where will I be this time next year?"), "All That I Said I Would Be" and "The Leaving," with a choir of Last Beat all-stars (members of Baboon, Vibrolux and Pleasant Grove among them) singing, "You give her love/She takes your heart and soul." All That Causes Bruises is a million miles away from Pinkston's first effort, a self-titled EP it put out almost three years ago, keeping the frame but finding a better painting to put it around. Clardy Lewis' voice only gets stronger and softer, and guitarists Daugherty and Ean Parsons only grow more skilled at juggling melody and malady with their mix-and-match leads. Along with drummer Ben Burt, Pinkston's been underrated so far. Maybe they won't be for long.