[nickTunes] Love Culture's Brit buzz Ohio, Friday @ T.T. The Bear's Place

In some parallel universe, the cultural British Empire of the '90s lived on and consumed the world. In this world, Jarvis Cocker took the first steps on Mars, Damon Albarn is a Labor MP who passes musician’s health bills through Parliament, and Morrissey himself is King of England. The shoegaze resistance (referred to by the people as the “Bloody Valentines”), however, has gained a strong foothold, and is currently running a war of attrition against the state. All this happened due to Ian Curtis’ decision to not sleep with a Belgian journalist, ensuring that Joy Division would be able to go on their American tour in the early '80s. Ohio band LOVE CULTURE feels like the sonic peace treaty for this imaginary war, an American solution to a very British problem.

To say that Love Culture (and I refuse to make a joke like “I’ve gotten a few Love Cultures at a Planned Parenthood before”) sounds a lot like the shoegaze and Britpop that inspired them is an incredible understatement. It feels like Marty and Doc Brown, having visited a Hill Valley that’s run by a quiff’d Biff Tannon, decided visit Mr. Curtis and alter history. Realizing the cultural void they’d left, they also made a quick stop in our 1990s, kidnap members of unknown bands, drop them off two years ago and wait for them to influence culture. They’ve absorbed a little bit of culture since arriving in the present, and the sound has become their own. Though I don’t feel compelled to wear more than one necktie or ride a hoverboard yet (that’s actually a huge lie), I’m thankful that the music gods dropped off this sonic Delorean for us. Love Culture shows us that there is an intelligent way to affect and change music’s past to make it suit the needs for our present.

Love Culture escapes the confines of Ohio to hit the Davis Square Theatre in Somerville on Thursday, then cross city lines for an ultra-noisy gig at T.T the Bear’s Place on Friday alongside kindred sonic spirits Endless Wave, The December Sound, and NYC’s Dead Leaf Echo. It’s 18+, $10, and doors are at 8:30, so grab your flux capacitors and head over there at 88 MPH.