In Your Speakers Gives Ugly Winner's "Inside Your Wave" A Stellar Review!

"Ugly Winner's second record utilizes unusual structure and subtle surreality to create a disconnected but powerful emotive atmosphere. The rough rock of Inside Your Wave manages to be loud and subtle at once—and amidst their homage to '80s indie stylings, the band has forged an original recording." Read the complete review over on In Your Speakers!

When You Motor Away Gives Ugly Winner's "Inside Your Wave" High Marks!

"A review of the song titles: "Thoughtful Spots", "Perfect Nothing", "Secret Song" - might lead you to guess that Makino's songwriting is all about taking you somewhere else. And you'd be right. The songs are long and dense, and really surround you with a heavy sound. There's feedback (check out the opening of "Fret One (Grow Old)" and no shortage of overlapping guitar work. And this being a California band, you'll find surf elements as well. Check out "TCBAHS" (lyrics contain the repeated phrase "This could be a heartbreak song") for some of that. But it's never completely straight ahead, and the influences aren't just recycled. This is thoughtful, very well-crafted rock music." Read on at WYMA here.

Ugly Winner's "Perfect Nothing" Premiered On Impose Magazine's "Week in Pop!"

"The 'Winners craft the sound of California garage pop dream echo trails with monstrous squalls of guitar that are sounds that make anyone want to take up the instruments, occupy the rec rooms of various tolerant neighbors scheduled at different times in order to keep the welcome polite. Catch guitarist and front vocalist Takashi Makino, bassist Todd Flanagan, drummer Nick Lopez and guitarist Maxwell Brokenhagen as they travel about the west coast on tour this week with dates posted here. " Check it out now over on Impose!

The Bay Bridged Premieres Ugly Winner's "Fret One(Grow Old)!"

"There is beauty and frailty in Ugly Winner’s dissonance. Even their off-key, jangling verses sound right on, especially when they tumble, as they so often do, headlong into a driving, angular chorus — glued together by tightly wound bass lines, which nod to bands like Interpol and Joy Division in their tendency to careen end-over-end, like an oblong boulder bounding down a hill." Listen and read the full review here.

Watch Ugly Winner Perform "Senses Safe" Live @ Eulipia Studios!