a passing feeling

"Named after a Thermals song, this band really blew me away with their debut EP a couple years ago, so I was really looking forward to their first full-length. The music is a bit different this time around - not as hyperactive (and it sounds a bit less like the Thermals this time around, as well), but though the pace of the songs might have slowed a bit, there seems to be even more intensity to them somehow. Listening to these songs and the lyrics is like watching someone who believes they are completely indestructible (and quite possibly are) smashing through everything in their path, against all odds, to reach their destination. They may be exhausted or discouraged, but they rarely show it. A lot of the songs have a road/driving theme to them, as if they were written about (or in anticipation of) the trials of touring, which is something they plan to do a lot of, so look out for 'em!" MTQ=10/10. -INDIEPAGES
- Indie Pages

Somehow A Passing Feeling was able to squeeze this record in under my radar, despite the fact that I wore out their EP and played phone tag with these guys for ages (and ultimately missed their only LA show! Sorry dudes!). The point is, I love this band, and I love their new record. It came out back in November, if you can believe it, on this high quality hand-screened package. I think it was a short run of 150. They've just got a great energy, writing sick pop songs. They're not snotty punks, but they've definitely pissed in those corners before. I don't know why they're not more popular. This is just a fun band with big hooks, sing-along choruses and the singer has a great voice. Their songs are just built to catch. At any rate, I want everyone to go pick up a copy of the record. It's one of my favorites, and hasn't left my car stereo for a minute. And as we all try to keep warm in our various states and depths of snow, it's nice to have some fucking heat from a solid rock band. There's nothing cozy about this record, but that doesn't mean it won't keep your warm". - Music For Robots

Book of Matches" - A Passing Feeling
"As the original punk era ricocheted into the original new wave era, this was the sort of song that was in the air: a short, triumphant bit of sweat and booze and bluster. My heart will ever have a big sloppy soft spot for songs with two separate hooks; that this NYC-based foursome delivers two great hooks in a song not even two and a half minutes long is all but insane. The first hook, 18 seconds in, starting with the words "So in taking you back to the scene of the crime," has something of the unbridled melodicism of early Elvis Costello, fully utilizing all seven notes of the scale in a delightful four-measure outburst. (Think in contrast to how many pop hits of recent decades employ often as few as three or four discrete notes in their hooks, if you can call them hooks.) On the heels of hook number one, singer Brian Miltenberg spits out the second hook in the glorious chorus, which is, rather delightfully, a throwback melody straight from the '50s, but sped up and thrashed through, as if the Ramones had attacked doo-wop instead of the Brill Building with their black-leather buzzsaw. For all of this song's brevity there's something monumental brewing in its sonic onslaught; I sure hope someone somewhere is blaring this out a dorm window on a blue, flowery day this spring..."
- Fingertips