Pink Mountaintops: Get Back

Black Mountain’s Stephen McBean re-emerges with his side project Pink Mountaintops, having left Vancouver for Los Angeles, where the omnipresent sunshine has turned his brain into one thoroughly obsessed with ideas of youth, love, rock ‘n’ roll and a world still thriving on all three. Cowbell centers “New Teenage Mutilation,” while “Sell Your Soul” is for, yep, rock-and-roll. J Mascis, Darker My Love’s Rob Barbato and Giant Drag’s Annie Hardy, among many, throw in contributions and McBean responds with catchy tunes that often sound like Nikki Sudden fronting a serious garage-punk band. The project’s self-consciousness, like any other overbearing concept, is forced when songs fall flat and ignorable when it rocks, which, thankfully, is more often than not.