Somewhere along the line little boys with guitars stopped wanting to sound like Nirvana and got a whole lot more mellow even while thrashing around with their first amp in their parents' garage. Maybe they can all get dope much more easily than when I was a teen. Maybe Americana is becoming cooler than Indie.
It's the only explanation for why so many up and coming bands (even ones with names as confrontational as Australia's Devastations) sound so darned bland. Even singing about male performance anxiety they just come over as bland, the vocals as nondescript as singing into a cushion, the driving, military drum the only real sign of life.
On the B side is a listless version of a Velvet Underground track (I Found A Reason, not one of their best either) that sounds like it's being performed by a completely different (if equally uninteresting) band.
