Medications YOUR FAVORITE PEOPLE ALL IN ONE PLACE (Dischord)

Medications have pedigree: singer/guitarist Devin Ocampo and bassist Chad Molter took the quirk-and-jerk jazz-rock tendencies of the Minutemen, blended in Jawbox-style harDCore, and found themselves on Fugazi’s shortlist of faves when they formed Faraquet back in 2000. Drummer Andrew Becker, who sounds as if he’d been raised on the same post-punk diet, is holding down the rhythm section in Mary Timony’s band. Oh, and Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty produced this, their first full-length. Canty gives Becker a chance to work off some energy on "Surprise!", the opening track, which spends close to two minutes on a jazz-rock odyssey before settling into an unsettlingly quiet groove, with Ocampo’s guitar arpeggios circling Molter’s pulsing bass in a tension-filled atmosphere that feels ripe for explosive screams of distortion. But Medications exercise restraint throughout most of Your Favorite People, building on melodic motifs as Ocampo plays call-and-response with his guitar and the Molter/Becker rhythm section lock into mathematically precise grooves reminiscent of Chavez. Anyone who mourned the loss of Faraquet will be pleased even if Ocampo isn’t exactly stuck in his own past.

Medications + Mary Timony | June 24 | T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge | 617.492.BEAR.