>>Nostalgia For Infinity

Another few months pass, another few tracks come our way courtesy of Next Biggest Thing. I wrote a cursory review of Why Why Peaches‘ ‘Holes’ back in April, and now here’s a double whammy – May brought us Francobollo’s ‘Try?’ and June offers forth Bronze Medallists’ ‘Mathematics’.

‘Try?’ is a quirky track, throwing a fuzzy, stamping drumbeat and big buzzy guitars at you alongside leisurely sung vocals. God knows what effects or compressors they’ve put on those drums (I know pretty much nothing about drums except that you hit them with sticks, or rolled up newspaper if you need to play in your room really quietly) but it’s effective. The song actually opens with a sort of tropical high-pitched steel string sound which doesn’t persist throughout the tune, but it does give it a bit of unusual character from the off. There’s a very Beck-ish feel to the songwriting, sound and vocals, actually – I mean this as a compliment despite personally having never found Beck as appealing or cool as I’m apparently supposed to. But yeah, Francobollo are an obviously British band; it comes through in those vocals pretty clearly despite the affected drawl and the occasional moments of weakness.

As for Bronze Medallists, they’re also British and proud (little surprise there, with Next Biggest Thing being London-centric), but they’re drawing their sources of inspiration from The Postal Service, or perhaps third-hand derivatives like the saccharine Owl City. ‘Mathematics’ is quite charming, actually, if you’re a bit of a nerd like me: it’s a love song articulated through the language of mathematics, which is honestly quite sweet. The song itself is, vocals aside, an entirely electronic composition, generally keeping things very simple and minimalistic but periodically throwing in a few other elements to spice things up. No, the song doesn’t punch through your ribcage and grip your heart the way that the impossibly perfect Give Up does, but there are far worse sources to crib notes from, particularly when you put your own spin on it like this.

Francobollo: MySpace | Facebook

Bronze Medallists: MySpace | Facebook

Next Biggest Thing

Madison’s The United Sons of Toil contacted me with news of their latest record at what felt like a pivotal time in left politics in the US: the widespread strikes in the band’s home state of Wisconsin by public sector workers seeking to fight a bill that shamelessly stripped them of their livelihoods. To my shame I’ve followed the spotlight as it has moved on to other targets, and I’m no longer aware of the results of what was one of the most memorable working class movements in recent US history.

Which serves, by way of roundabout introduction, as a suitable starting point for any discussion of The United Sons of Toil. Billing themselves as a precision noise-rock band “delivered by populist theoreticians”. It’s a smart record with a broad vocabulary, and the band are apparently motivated as much by the fiery passion of radical politics as they the 90s noise and math bands that inspire their sound. When the Revolution Comes, Everything Will be Beautiful is accompanied by a manifesto which opens “We violently reject the complacency and evil of the American status quo and seek through music to re-educate the populace and assist with establishing a new and equitable radical democracy.” A laudable sentiment and one I can get behind. Having said that, I’m here to review the music so, having set the context, let’s move on.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Start as you mean to go on: on their eponymous first album, Run With The Hunted do just that. It also helps if a precedent has been set: you’ll have heard a lot of hardcore records do what ‘Introspective’, the first track, accomplishes here. Fading in with simple lead and some faintly glitchy effects alongside whispered vocals, it builds in volume but restrains its speed, keeping the guitars slow and sinister and the drums big and rolling, the vocals becoming more energetic until several men are straining their vocal chords. And then it ends, before ‘Magna Cum Laude’ kicks in, opening with feedback and full-speed-ahead drumming.

It’s a trick that crops up a lot because it works; that first track sets an emotional tone to establish the mood of the record that follows, and it does so a lot more effectively than pushing straight ahead at people with a breakneck tune. Fortunately it’s also a trick that – if you even notice it – isn’t objectionable provided it’s done well. Do Run With the Hunted’ manage this? Well, yes; although ‘Magna Cum Laude’ isn’t their strongest track the initial shift in pace is jarring enough to deliver a quick, mild shock to the system, and structurally it moves around enough to keep things interesting, particularly when it becomes more moody towards its close and throws multiple vocals at you – they’re not well-synchronised and this sloppiness works perfectly.

» Read the rest of this entry «

There are an awful lot of us banging on about Bangers these days. They tour themselves pretty hard and crop up on a lot of bills; to their credit, seeing them doesn’t get old. I last saw them supporting Iron Chic and reviewed the show here; last November I also reviewed their previous full-length, Dude Trips.

Small Pleasures is the band’s first official full-length; Dude Trips was assembled from various previous releases whereas this was all recorded back in January. Whilst it was difficult to find fault in the consistency and coherence of Dude Trips it’s increasingly obvious to me that Small Pleasures is a significantly superior record.

I have to throw in a small aside here: for those of you not entirely sold on pop-punk / melodic hardcore / whatever term you dig, Small Pleasures isn’t a fundamental shift from what Bangers have done before and nor is it a revolutionary punk rock record. Normally at this point I’d type out some cliché such as “if you’ve yet to be converted, this won’t be the record to do so”, but I’m not convinced that’s the case here. Bangers have pretty much refined their form of three-piece pop-punk to exactly where it needs to be: fast, full, packed with more hooks than a roll of razorwire and dense with affecting, thoughtful autobiographical lyrics. Like all the best punk rock trios every instrument works together to provide just the right component for these simple-yet-intricate songs.

» Read the rest of this entry «

The problem with really overt pop-cultural nostalgia is that it’s really easy to be accused of cynical populism. In fact, is there anything more cynical and populist than reminding people of all that shit, that cultural detritus, the forgotten mass produce of capitalism that we once cluttered up our lives with? It was abandoned and forgotten for a good reason in most cases; it became redundant or was superseded or was plain unnecessary in the first place. TV shows like I <3 the 80′s are guilty of more than fragrant abuse of apostrophes: they’re guilty of exploiting hollow nostalgia for commercial gain. The nostalgia is actually for our youth, not the bullshit that was sold to us, but you can show someone in their late twenties a screencap from Thundercats and you’ll instantly have some common ground, which it’s harder to get with fuzzy ideas about universal human experience.

And so we come to ‘I Miss the 90s’ by The Winter Olympics. They make a good start with a clear demonstration that they understand apostrophes: literacy is good. From there they also step in the right direction with some tongue-in-cheek lyrics that, for me, manage to walk the fine line between an affectionately mocking, self-deprecatory tone and a reflection of the genuine nostalgia for the trappings of youth. » Read the rest of this entry «

Yep, between June 12th and 27th I am away on holiday so if you email, leave comments etcetera expect to wait a while for a response. Especially because I’m straight back to work when I return and will be jetlagged, overworked and stressed to uberfuckery for at least a few days.

However I’ve also racked up a bunch of reviews for the entire time I’ll be away and then some so don’t worry, there’ll still be a thrice-weekly dose of my wittering on about music and records appearing here on NFI.

Take it easy!

Carpenter are from Vancouver and their line-up includes alumni of All State Champion, By a Thread and Daggermouth. I only know of the latter myself, mainly from seeing them mentioned on PunkNews and wondering if their name was a Family Guy reference. Funny story huh? But then I guess making jokes about The Carpenters is way more predictable. Those are the jokes, folks.

So, what you have here is nostalgic, slightly gainy but clean melodic punk rock chock full of power chords, octaves and passionate vocals. The way the songs are written and sung makes them sound really quite triumphal, but on closer examination this isn’t often the case. Much of the album follows a consistent thematic thread, beginning with ‘Mean Things’ in which we’re told about a relationship splintering: there’s still a lot of love but the titular “mean things” are said… over the phone, too. The music is catchy and infectious which characterises much of the album; it’s an unexpected juxtaposition with a lot of the lyrics but this record is very much of the attitude “life may be hard but that shouldn’t stop us being positive”.

» Read the rest of this entry «