Montana’s Minot shared new tracks on Bandcamp at regular intervals throughout 2025. Eventually compiled as the ‘And You’re Not’ album, the self proclaimed “lo-fi garage punk muffins” served up something that often sounded like buried treasure from the US garage rock scene thirty five years previously. This, of course, was a good thing.
The previously unheard songs that grace their two track 7” ‘People Pleaser’ throw a little more of a curveball. ‘Walls’ presents a massive sounding fuzz bass, which provides a much more powerful sound in comparison with past recordings. This brings a great excitement to Minot’s more unrestrained approach, and the number’s relentless guitar work – at least at first – trades in some of the expected garage rock/punk sounds for something with a little more of a rockabilly feel, but this is particularly cool. When the guitars eventually drop into something more of a garage rock mood, everything sounds a little bigger than most of the ‘And You’re Not’ tracks, and allowing for a really raw vocal, the number has the potential for being a rough and ready classic. It’s certainly one of the best Minot recordings to date.
‘People Pleaser’, by contrast, is a little disarming, in that it drops all garage aspects to make way for spacious sounds that pull together elements of anti-folk and lo-fi psych. Following a distant sounding count-in, chiming guitars lay down a mid tempo. Their simple approach suits the band’s lo-fi style and the slightly echoed vocal applied here, but a warbling edge ensures that the finer points of the lyric are lost in a strange haziness that wouldn’t necessarily be associated with this band. The core of the performance occasionally gives off the vibe of an old demo from The Smashing Times, but listen more closely, and the presence of a bigger chord delivered from Flora’s guitar will provide a much stronger link with Minot’s garage rock core sound. It’ll take a few listens before this stops sounding like a descent into a world of weird, but the more patient listener will eventually discover something retro that’s potentially quite interesting – and certainly designed for attracting more of a cult audience.
For anyone approaching this sometimes noisy trio for the first time, it’s vital that you listen to ‘Walls’ first, then backtrack to the album material, and then check out ‘People Pleaser’ as a closer to this chapter in Minot’s creative cycle. That’s probably the best way to make their unexpected voyage into minimalist, lo-fi, bedroom psych make complete sense. Despite any unexpected detours, this release continues to show off a band forging their own musical path, never worrying about any huge commercial potential and with a lo-fi love cutting through every chord.
October 2025