Entertainment

It wouldn’t be difficult to make a case for Columbus, Ohio’s Gaunt to be figured as just another nineties band whose career was eventually wrecked in part due to major labels descending upon almost any city in search of the next Nirvana.

That’s reductive, to be sure. Gaunt doesn’t bear much more than a passing similarity to that Seattle troupe. Of course, there’s a tossed off charm being expounded by the shambolic and skuzzy songs, each over run with feedback and simple chords charging to some unknown endgame. It sounds as if even Gaunt doesn’t know what’s set to follow, but manages to hold on just tight enough to keep it all from flying apart.

Forming in 1991, Gaunt’s musical lineage probably stretches back to forgotten bands from Columbus seeing as the group’s first order of business was working up compositions for a split with the New Bomb Turks. There was something there.