>>Nostalgia For Infinity

You may remember Mixtapes from my review of their split with Milwaukee’s Direct Hit!, about which I said:

“…the least convincing band rivalry since Radon burned that church down and Bad Religion wrote them a really stern letter.”

Hey, go check out their joint video if that has you curious!

So, since then the boys and girl in Mixtapes have been busy engineering an advanced form of mad science, allowing them to cram 7 songs over 16 minutes onto a single 7″. A Short Collection of Short Songs is the result, and there’s actually a real mixtape feel to it – a mix of songs with varied pace and songwriting, plus, of course, a cover.

Let’s begin at the beginning: ‘Birthday Party Summer’ (subtitled ‘Helllooo Meggannnn’ – bless those punx and their in-jokes). It opens soft, steady and gentle but with quick root notes on the bass to indicate that things are going to pick up. At first, though, you’re left to soak in some sweet vocal harmonies, occasional delicate guitar picking and ever-so-slightly sappy lyrics. There’s a faint smattering of piano, too, before the pace picks up alongside gang vocals and more energetic drumming. But the song is, essentially, an extended intro for ‘Real Hotel California’, the faster pop-punk number that ‘Birthday Party Summer’ was always promising to build toward. » Read the rest of this entry «

Diamonds (“The Band”) are a four-piece outfit from the Black Country, composed of members of regional mainstays like Mothertrucker, The Shoguns Decapitator, The Hubble Constant and Fawks. I’ve heard of Mothertrucker but not the other outfits, but then it’s a long time since I lived in the North or went to Birmingham, so that doesn’t mean much! Diamonds themselves are a relatively young band, forming just last year initially as a trio. This is their first release, hence the title.

Apparently Diamonds started off as a grind band but after adding a fourth member went off in a different direction. There are still elements of those grind origins here, but they’re just a small part of a whole that draws on funk, disco and “spazzcore” (work with me here), with all this meat packed around a skeleton of post-punk and hardcore.

First impressions on ‘Incinerate the Incinerator’ are indicative: nonsensical, self-reflexive title; production that sounds a little tinny and cheap but simultaneously quite polished – perhaps a deliberate conceit; top-heavy drums rapping on the cymbals, yelped vocals and speedy funk-inspired guitar riffs in the verses, significantly bass-heavier drums and fat chuggy riffs in the choruses with screamed vocals. Halfway through the song changes pace into a third pattern: slower, more thudding drums, plenty of trem guitar and stripped-down basslines. Yep, it’s experimental hardcore party time!

» Read the rest of this entry «

It’s been irritating me for weeks: just who does Ghost Robot Ninja Bear vocalist Oscar Albis Rodriguez remind me of? So far I’ve only been able to prod my finger towards the vocal stylings of Propagandhi and No Use For A Name, and neither comparison holds much water. Goddamnit, who is it I’m thinking of?

Well, whatever. Whoever it is I am trying and failing to remember, it doesn’t change the fact that Ghost Robot Ninja Bear play cool, fast-paced, jagged yet melodic ‘post-hardcore’. To be honest I’d be more comfortable describing this as ‘post-punk’ but thanks to the 1980s and the arty offshoots of punk rock that’s not possible. Thanks a bunch, 1980s.

Anyway, one small shred of truth in the above (inaccurate) comparisons is that Ghost Robot Ninja Bear are rocking a fairly 90s sound that’s very akin to the best of the melodic punk/hardcore of the era, but with musicianship that’s more accomplished and songwriting that isn’t entirely constrained by the genre. For example, 4th track ‘Carousel’ has some inexplicable death metal vocals thrown in before a spot of moody guitar picking. The vocals work but their inclusion is a bit odd. But so what? It works, and that’s all you need. Opener ‘One Pedal to Another’ is built around some cool tremolo guitar and slower melodic verses with faintly haunting lead, whereas ‘Blood the Tango’ and ‘Staring at the Clocks’ deploy rhythms that segue easily between stop-start and thumping, holding them together with some quality vocal lines.

Small Brown Bike are another band who seem to be mentioned quite a bit in reference to GRNB and I can see the similarities; sonically the two bands aren’t much alike but they’re both ploughing interesting furrows along the turf of melodic punk rock. Polar Bear Club aren’t a million miles away either, although GRNB are not quite so saccharine or po-faced (and I write that as a big fan of Polar Bear Club).

This 4-track EP is a collection of the two singles and accompanying b-sides released earlier this year, so if you’ve already got those then this is strictly for completists. However, if you missed them then do give this a try as the chops and unique personality on display really do demand it.

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When I first started writing this review I wrote a few lines about how some music sounds like a warm hug feels; or like sitting in the sun with your friends, like laughing and drinking or dancing and singing. Like the good times, basically.

I ended up deleting these lines (and then restoring them by obliquely referring to them – ha!) because they were sentimental almost to the point of schmaltzy absurdity, but the fact that I wrote them in the first place gives you some idea of how Grown Ups‘ 2009 EP Songs makes me feel. The four songs included are warm, bright and mellow indie/emo tunes with a whole lot of charm. The band’s sound is built around two clean noodling guitars interspersed with hoarse, raspy vocals, and this fusion of technical proficiency and rough & ready pop-punk really appeals to me. What would we call this? “Ambient punk”?

The band’s lineage can probably be traced back to outfits like Sunny Day Real Estate and the Promise Ring, whilst the most obvious contemporary comparison is Castevet (with whom the band have recently toured). Bridge & Tunnel are a fair comparison also, though Grown Ups have a much less heavy sound; Algernon Cadwallader are also not entirely dissimilar.

Probably the stand-out track for me is ‘Three Day Weekend’, which varies between fast-paced fist in the air parts and gorgeous, playful lead riffs that have me thinking of the lazy summer days ahead.

Songs is available free from both Big Scary Monsters (via the ‘Friend of the Family’ scheme) and If You Make It. The band also have a MySpace page. Oh, and their UK tour starts on Thursday, so check them out!

I’ve not reviewed Bomb the Music Industry! on NFI before, although I did reckon last year’s Scrambles was the second best album of the year. That aside, it feels difficult to review a band that you’re so outrageously fond of without just spewing hot, exciting love all over the place. But! The idea behind Adults!!! (surely wins most ludicrous title of the year if nothing else) is that it was recorded in five days, so here is a short review that I wrote in five minutes. It would probably be more in keeping with the spirit of the record if I spent five hours on this review but I don’t have the patience for such an outrageously pointless conceit.

So! First up, Adults!!! is more ska-centric than either Scrambles or 2007′s Get Warmer. It opens up with ‘You Still Believe In Me’, which could almost be an Arrogant Sons of Bitches (Jeff Rosenstock’s old ska-punk band) song, driven as it is by brass, rolling drums, and simple hooky chords. Right after that you have the faster-paced ‘Planning My Death’ ska-punk tune which is characteristically tongue-in-cheek, light-hearted but dark: ” I’ve been planning my death ’cause I wanna have a really good death. I want heroism, mystery and courage.”

Lyrically the entire EP reads like is a snapshot of where Jeff is at in his life right now: “I used to be an awesome listener. But now I just drift in and out or get pulled away by beats and measures like I don’ t have a choice but failure and running from a brighter future.” » Read the rest of this entry «

Where “best” is used in the subjective sense of “what I liked the most”. You want analyses of what was most finely crafted or most significant in terms of pop cultural trends, go read Pitchfork or a music postgraduate’s dissertation. Here’s what caught my imagination, heart, and desire to put my fist in the air this year. » Read the rest of this entry «