Band of the Week - Pilot This Plane Down

Ever wondered how/why Examination of the... went from their chaotic screamo stylings to the more Neurosis laden The Whitest of Elephants?  Me neither, but Pilot This Plane Down could serve as the perfect non-linear missing link.  Before I confuse you, I'm not saying either band share any members or anything like that.  The common denominators here are experimental ambient screamo and slow crushing meanderings.  PTPD just manages to blend them all on to one record(s). Whether it's building a 20 some-odd minute song (Airs EP), or separating the ambient tracks from the structured songs (Glory of the World LP) Pilot This Plane Down quickly and noisily attack before paralyzing you with the lulling ambiance only so they can drag you down and stuff you under a rock. Every song weaves into each other so well and after getting bombarded by a song like "Conquest," the bleed into the softer sung, prettier "Decline" is seamless.  Don't get caught napping or scratching your noodle asking "how did we get here?" because you will be knocked on your butt wondering where your socks went.

www.facebook.com/pilotthisplanedown

Where they started: 2004's Airs

Where you should start: Glory of the World is just the more complete record as well as having the better quality recordings.  Airs forces you to listen to the whole EP (seeing as it is just one song) whereas GOTW's songs can stand on their own, but you kind of want to listen to the record as a whole anyway.

Essential Song (aka only one I could find, but still a good one):

Although these guys haven't released anything in almost 3 years, there have been rumblings of new material being written and shows being played.  Also, member(s?) of Pilot This Plane Down were in a band called Day of Less whose contributors have gone on to form Gaza and Bird Eater among other Salt Lake City bands.

Band of the Week - Playing Enemy

"I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN..." scrapes through the throat of Demian Johnston as Playing Enemy's second full length album, I Was Your City, begins with a noisy guitar and bass, yet drum-less, intro track.  Sure, we've all thought these words, we've probably even heard them in many songs before.  However, this isn't your typical angsty hardcore band with trite hate-filled lyrics.  You see, even though Playing Enemy broke up nearly 5 years ago, they were already veterans having come from bands like Undertow, Rorschach, Nineironspitfire, and, most notably, Kiss It Goodbye.  At this point, if these guys are still angry about something there's a pretty good chance it's legitimate.  Also, Johnston's scream isn't some cackle that is so overproduced and contrived that it doesn't sound human.  No, his scream is about as raw and honest as you'll ever hear.  He's not screaming like it's some effect that goes along with the music, he's screaming like if he wasn't holding a guitar he'd be holding a fistful of your shirt and he's going to make you listen.

As album opener "Cancer" fades, "Jade" rushes in with guns blazing.  Noisy speedy punk riffs ride over some of the most creative and complicated drumming you will ever hear.  Dude sounds like he's playing 3 songs at once.  I Was Your City is Shane Mehling's first Playing Enemy full length on bass and rather than play a supporting role to Johnston's strumming, Shane battles each riff as the low end combatant.  These guys are too smart to be angsty.  This is raw passion by guys with dues paid and lessons learned. On "The End of Something" (which boasts a melodic riff that still gives me chills) when he belts out, "With all that I gave up/With all I would give up/Sure, I'll go with you/Sure, I'll leave with you/I bet we look good together" it's the raspy vocals that actually give validity and meaning to his words.

Where they started: 2001's Cesarean

Where you should start: Cesarean certainly is the more Kiss It Goodbye sounding record Playing Enemy released, maybe because every member on that album was in KIG at some point.  I favor I Was Your City (if that wasn't already obvious) and I really like their posthumous EP My Life As the Villain.  Playing Enemy also released a number of splits, self-released tour CD's (aptly named Gas Money and Fly Us Home), and EP's, one of which contains a great cover of The Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and another track that's over an hour long (yes, they still called it an EP).  If either Cesarean or I Was Your City strikes you, it's definitely worth sifting through all of their material to find the many gems that aren't on proper records.

Essential Song:


Essential Live Video:


Some Other Stuff: It's all pretty rad, but it gets ridiculous at 1:50


Some Other Stuff They Do Now: I Know Demian Johnston does some solo stuff, as well as working with Shane Mehling on some noise stuff, or at least used to.  Demian is also one of my favorite artists and posts a lot of his work here www.demianjohnston.com. Shane writes reviews for Decibel Magazine and they're easily the funniest music reviews you will ever read.  Also, during Botch's final show members of PE joined Botch on stage to contribute to the madness during "Man the Ramparts."

Song of the Week: Ambulette - If You Go Away

Something a little different this week since a) nobody actually reads this which leads us to b) who cares?  "If You Go Away" is actually somewhat of a cover of a cover.  The song was originally written in French by Belgian Jacques Brel under the title "Ne me quitte pas" ("Don't Leave Me").  The English version based on "Ne me quitte pas" was written by Rod McKuen. The song has been recorded by Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, among many others.  All of this you may know.

What Ambulette is able to bring to their version of the song that the other legendary artists weren't (all of which I listened to) is a haunting weight to the despair.  And it really isn't fair because Ambulette is armed with the gently wailing apparition that is Maura Davis (Denali, Glös).  Her voice glides through and hits you with such honest sadness that it feels as if she wrote the song herself.  As Maura strums through the first few versus on her own the rest of Ambulette quietly starts their crescendo adding a certain heaviness (of the indie rock variety) to "If You Go Away."  A few "Oooooo's" and "Whoa's" to close the song out and you're left with a penetrating plea that would be pretty hard to turn away from if she was on your dimly lit porch singing it straight to you. Unfortunately, Ambulette (originally dubbed Bella Lea) had a very short existence only releasing one EP, The Lottery, with Astralwerks.

Essential Song (probably because it's the very song I'm talking about):


Fun facts: Poison the Well's song "For a Bandaged Iris" is about Maura's voice.  She is the sister of Engine Down vocalist/guitarist Keeley Davis.  The two have collaborated on a few different projects which brings me to this:

Some other sweet song Maura sings on:

Band of the Week - Bad Mask

Since 2000's masterpiece We Are the Romans, there have been a slew of bands interested in recreating Botch's style.  If any artist is ever sincerely compared to the metalcore (yeah, I hate that word, too, but what are you gonna do?) legends then you know they've got talent and chops.  If they're able to mold the style and make it their own, then you know they've got something worth listening to.

Bad Mask are your boys. Twisting angular riffs, complicated competent drumming, odd time signatures, and even some patented Knudson slide effects wind their way across each relentless song these guys noodle through.  The vocals are actually similar to those of the band Fall Silent, but if you don't know who that is then just think of a higher pitched Some Girls-era Wes Eisold scream with a few clean parts that call to mind Alexis Marshall's drunken slurring on Daughters' Hell Songs. There's some lower bellows thrown in, as well, but honestly, those seem to work better live than on record. Regardless, Bad Mask bring back late 90's integrity to the genre, writing serious songs that are seriously good and avoid any of the trite metalcore (Dang it! There it is again) formulas.

www.facebook.com/badmask

Where they started: 2010's V2

Were you should start: They only have the 2; V2 and Strange Phrases and they're both available for free on the band's bandcamp site (http://badmask.bandcamp.com/) so why not get both? 


Essential Song:


Essential Live Video: Can't really find a high quality one, so deal


I actually found out about this band as they were getting trashed on the Lambgoat.com message board, but if anyone gave any merit to any opinion that vomits itself out on that site then none of us would be listening to anything.