Tag: Review

It Works

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I’ve been listening to emo for a long, long, time. I read and gave copies of Andy Greenwald’s Nothing Feels Good to friends. In high school it was the word I used to describe myself and who I associated myself with.

It’s a scene I carry a great deal of affection for, especially for the 90’s era. When American Football or The Promise Ring tours or releases new music my teenage hope of hopes have been answered.

So many new bands have such obvious influences from this period of emo but have little to no diversion. They’re either carbon copies or poor imitations.

You see more bands that were influenced by Thursday or Pg. 99 creating more authentic music. Oliver Houston is the only band I’ve heard recently that sounds like 90’s midwest emo but yet their own.

Whatever Works came to me as a complete surprise. They’ve proclaimed their refusal to use status quo music business tools to promote their album. While I found the band through a sponsored ad, it’s something they paid for and directed at people like me.

The songs are short and accomplish what takes their musical influences five or six minutes in half the time. Take “Pho” and “Bernie” which have the gorgeous melodies of Braid but complements them tasty guitar licks in an average time of 2:08 minutes.

“Concession” has hooking almost west coast riffs that just cruise down the beach all the way through. The vibraslap in the beginning doesn’t hurt either.

Unlike most of the 90’s emo bands, Oliver Houston depends on the riff not the pretty melodies. They’re just the complement. Bands like Mineral had chorded parts but the arrangement was based on some scale.

Take “Tough Luck” which has a great bass line that transforms and charges up with snare rolls into a beautiful scene of plucking harmony.

The highlight of the record however, and what separates the band resonates on “Tom Quad” and how it champions something emo isn’t known for: rocking! Just take the guitar chorus. The riff tastes crunchy and the drummer just crushes the open hi-hat.

Its solo makes you want to air-guitar. I’ve never written that about any “emo” song, ever. There’s something unique here I haven’t quite experienced from this scene before.

These guys grew up on the same nothing feels good records I did but clearly their palate extends beyond sad and depressed music.

This is Real

codeorange

The recent rise of Code Orange has created a buzz around the band. Some have been surprised by their broadly growing popularity.

Forever just came about three weeks ago. It’s easily their best and most comprehensive album yet. With each album their hypothesized sound sharpens with clarity. I Am King also had underground hype a few years ago but didn’t have the same coherence.

Just start with “Forever” and “Kill the Creator” which absolute slay some VFW hall or club. The arrangements possess carnage making breakdowns and back-beat bass slaps that’ll make anyone puff their chest in the pit. There are also some of these artistic elements introduced before they start playing a bigger role in the album.

Programmed distorted bass intermissions and industrial drum loops interrupt and reconnect parts of songs. Those two tracks are dynamic alone for a single, but Forever stands strong as a whole. Each track has purpose. No song falls into a filler category.

“Real” is the first of those songs that ventures into something outside of hardcore or metal. It loads up heavy for 45 seconds and then silences into a wonderfully industrial break. They use it to progress back into viciousness.

At times it feels like three or four songs in one. It actually works here unlike most artists I hear trying to string more than one song together.

Of all the tracks “Hurt Goes On” annihilates all barriers of genre. This piece of art explores an infinite void. Its lyrics haunts you, inspires an odd toughness, and whatever kind of darkness but not evil you want to describe. It’s an industrial spoken word. The simple but harsh beat can repeat forever and never lose its quiescent intensity.

There’s still songs that are true to CO’s roots. Nothing’s heavier or more metallic than “Spy” on the record. Nothing.

Gratefully there’s a bit of Rebe Myers’ singing too. “Bleeding in the Blur” has this grimy feel to it featuring Myers through out. It’s a pretty rare treat with a song that’s more grunge than hardcore and the kind of song you wouldn’t expect from this kind of ferocious band.

“Dream2” is a black hymn and wraps up Forever in a spiraling silence. If it started destructively, the end was a mum departure. They left the village and went outside the city walls.

It’s clear they executed and transposed from their mind exactly what they wanted.