You may be asking: “what is a DIY Punk webzine doing, writing about pop-music?” My answer is: “fuck you”. You like Mac DeMarco? Good, you’ll be digging the newest adventure of Ralph Cola, National Zero.
Well, maybe ‘adventure’ is a bit of a strong word. As delicious and sweet as opener “Doing Nothing” sounds, it is ironically named. Listening to this, you will literally be doing nothing. Fuck it. You got bills to pay, stuff to do? Stay in bed, do nothing, You slacker.
Ralph Cola (real name Aidan Leather) is not a slacker though, unlike you miserable lot. This collection of lo-fi recordings come from the small town of Kenilworth, UK, and he is building up to getting signed. With songs like “At Home’, that’s as dreamy and pretty as some of the hooks and cleverly-written styles of Happyness’s Weird Little Birthday, he’s well equipped to be picking up label interest.
“Asleep in the Daytime” ends the record on a drowsy note. I might take a nap. Maybe, I dunno. One thing I do know for sure though, is that you should probably go ahead and download National Zero off Bandcamp for free or something. And with name-dropping Keanu Reeves in “Feels like Gold”, National Zero has it all. Fuck Neo, Ralph Cola is The One.
Check out the official video for “Here For” below:
