Band of the Week - The Minor Times

Masters of the Side 1 Track 1 intro.  Every release opens with a distant static-y guitar lazily building into an explosion of heavy music as Brendan McAndrew never fails to scream the word "fuck" in the first line; "I'd like to see you word fuck your way out of this." to the more anthemic (as you'll see below) "Fuck me? No, fuck you." to "Turn up the fucking static." (I usually try to edit this and keep it clean, but not this week). Yeah, I know, that sounds like some angsty Korn junk that would attract mall dwellers that swoon for any kind of foul language in music.  I've usually clung to the notion that using "fuck" in lyrics is a cheap ploy to attract the forever present angry youth demographic.  However, The Minor Times are a lot more clever and way more frightening than that.  These aren't gimmicks to lure in the simple minded.  It's an alert to warn you about the aural altercation you're about to endure.  So put up your dukes because it's too late to talk your way out of this one.

This isn't a prize fight either, it's a sweaty basement near Philly in August.  So forget the bells and whistles.  In fact, The Minor Times kind of sound like Botch without the bells and whistles. The relentless heavy churning feels a little like Kiss It Goodbye, and a few off beat starts and stops to give a nod to tech metal.  Where The Minor Times stand out are the more subtle aspects; lumbering smooth groove and a keen songwriting ability.  So many heavy bands try to find a niche, but usually are more successful (assuming they're successful at all) at finding a schtick instead.  Lost on the instant gratification generation is the ability to lead into a song (mentioned above), pulverize and smoothly transition into the next phrase without losing force, pace, or attention.  All the while still being able to surprise the listener and keep it fresh even with multiple listens. It's a good thing, too because when Mr. McAndrew changed his vocals from the higher pitched screams on the first EP (and a couple of compilation songs) to the more guttural Turmoil-esque tough guy bellows on the full lengths, it was TMT's songwriting ability that kept me interested. It's what separates them from similar sounding acts like Achilles and Engineer.  Not that those bands are bad, but The Minor Times are just more crafty.  Drummer, Brian Medlin's refusal to use a double bass pedal was also an impressive move and certainly the road less traveled in the realm of heavy music in the last decade.  Medlin is a madman behind the kit, too, often sounding like he's perfectly copy and pasted a tech metal drum session under these thick grooves.

Back before the whole social media age, people used to spam message boards with their mp3.com link... um, myspace link?  Hopefully, you remember at least one of those.  Anyway, I was on one of these message boards when one of The Minor Times members posted their band's link.  I quickly clicked to listen so that I could, no doubt, ridicule this silly spammer and tell him just how awful his band was.  I suspect it was about a year later when I was making the 5 hour drive to see The Minor Times with Ed Gein.  Couple that with the fact that The Minor Times frontman joined Ed Gein for a crowd pleasing rendition of Coalesce's "You Can't Kill Us All" and it was all worth the 5 hour drive back that same night.  Of course, The Minor Times are no more and members went on to be in Person L, Wives, and Ladder Devils to name a few.  Most of the members of The Minor Times came from a band called Inkling which was kind of similar, but incorporated a lot more singing and softer parts.

Where They Started: 2002's Chris Chambers Never Misses EP

Where You Should Start: It's very hard for me to recommend a 5 song EP over a couple of full lengths unless it is absolutely phenomenal.  And that's where we're at.  Definitely dive into the EP.  I love the higher pitched vocals.  They also have 2 songs on a Robotic Empire sampler that also feature that vocal style, but were later reworked and rerecorded with the deeper vocals for the debut full length.  I'm not saying the full lengths aren't worth getting... eventually.  If you like those deeper vocals then by all means go with one of the full lengths.

Essential Song: I would be remiss if I didn't include all of their Side 1 Track 1's







Essential Live Video: Has to be the crowd favorite.  People just like to say "fuck."

Band of the Week - These City Limits

Pop music is evil.  I don't mean in the "destroying the industry" sense, but more in an infectious disease kind of way.  Especially when the band is initially masked as something else. You're lured in with clever and unique drumming and a darker chord progression than what you were expecting and now you're captivated.  However, the singer kicks in and, though good and intriguing, it's the kind of vocals where you just think to yourself that he's obviously trying to garner some mainstream attention.  You're hit with the chorus and there it is; the 4/4 drum beat and recognizable, yet forgettable riff and catchy vocal pattern. Then you black out and when you come to, you're whistling the chorus as you walk out of your room, or car, or mom's basement only to run back and press play again for the 18th time in the last hour (slightly over 3 minutes per song, the perfect pop length).  You're hooked (yes, that's where the term comes from) and you couldn't be happier about your slow demise into the realm of pop music.

Although the above scenario is what happened to me when I first heard These City Limits, I don't mean to criticize their pop sensibilities.  Their songs are anything, but forgettable and the vocals, though more accessible than most music I listen to, are definitely the most infectious part of the songs.  Having been a privy to guitarist/vocalist Randy Vanderbilt's musical output since the inception of his first band, Scarlet (back then they were called Blindfold Coalition and he was the drummer), I've been able to follow the growth of his musical genius through the years.  These City Limits have a sound that is similar to The Dear Hunter, and though they have that prog rock kind of feel, they don't really stray too far from the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus song structure hinting at a Muse influence.  Vanderbilt's vocals are reminiscent of the aforementioned bands and when the choruses come in, the melodies sound like Finch's later material.  What sets These City Limits apart from those bands and other artists skirting the boundaries between pop and rock is that Randy hasn't completely abandoned that dark Scarlet guitar tone.  A few of TCL's riffs would have fit right in with Cult Classic.  Even the lyrics have similar apocalyptic themes.  It leaves These City Limits' music fresh without alienating the casual listener.


www.facebook.com/pages/These-City-Limits/217445531607424

Where They Started: From what I can tell, they're a relatively new band with just one demo. Fellow Scarlet alumn, Andreas Magnussen, mixed and mastered the recordings.

Where You Should Start: It's not quite the same, but I really like Scarlet and if you like These City Limits at all you should kind of move backwards through Scarlet's catalog since their last record, This Was Always Meant To Fall Apart, did have the most singing on it.  It's all good to me, though.

Essential Song: Listen to the whole demo below.  The first 2 songs are definitely my favorites.

Explanation for the Lull

So I used to be pretty consistent with the (whatever) of the week posts, but obviously (to me) I’ve fallen off.  I could blame some of it on a move halfway across the country… so I will.  Also, I have quite a bit of albums that I haven’t listened to in full.  So, in order to give them all a fair shake without getting bored and forcing myself to listen to records I’m not in the mood for I have decided to listen to every single song I have in alphabetical order.  Kind of like listening on a predetermined shuffle just to assure myself that I actually do listen to all of the songs in my library.  I did this once about 4 years ago.  I was able to listen to my whole library in just under three months.  Well, I’m currently just under 3 months and I’m only approaching the end of D.  Not like I don’t allow myself some wiggle room; songs I just have to hear, new material I’m really interested in, iPod listens, etc.  However, when I do tackle something like this my slight OCD kicks in and it’s hard to pull me away, thus the lull in actually sitting down and listening to a band’s catalog in order to formulate a new post here.  I know you weren’t interested in an explanation, but you got one anyway, buddy.

Band of the Week - Gaza

Unholy.  Godless.  Unforgiving.  Who would be better experts than 4 guys from Utah?  Back in the mid-90's Victory Records released albums by a band called Bloodlet.  In a time when metal and hardcore were being fused, reviewers were quick to combine just about anything with the "-core" suffix and create a new genre like other bands were soon to follow.  Using smart dark lyrics laced with biblical references and a new brooding take on metallic hardcore Bloodlet got tagged with "evilcore."  Some 10+ years later a worthy disciple has finally come along to carry on the moniker.

OK, before things get too serious, I don't really think "evilcore" is a legitimate genre, nor would I say Gaza or its members are evil. However, Gaza does have a dark and astute take on religion, life, death, and politics.  With album titles like I Don't Care Where I Go When I Die and He Is Never Coming Back (it's a reference to Jesus, get it?) you really don't have to delve into the music to know where these guys are going with their beliefs.  You should want to, though, because, like I said, it's been almost 15 years since a band has been accomplishing this brand of dark ugly metal with such a cultivated clever rationale.  Gaza play sludgy metal/hardcore with elements of doom and grind.  It's grimy, it's dirty, it's caustic, and it's really good.

Similar to Bloodlet's mid-paced style, Gaza have that off beat drumming that I had never heard until picking up my first Bloodlet record, but it's very similar to Coalesce's James Dewees' never-stop-moving-your-arms-no-matter-what-the-pace-of-the-song method.  However, drummer Casey Hensen is far more innovative and wildly unpredictable. Even if guitarist Mike Mason and bassist Tino Lucero are playing the same droney riff for 3+ minutes (the end of "Hospital Fat Bags") Casey will never play the same fills.  The guitars aren't all drone, though.  Gaza use quite a bit of finger-tapping, but contrary to how most bands use finger-tapping for neat sounding solos, Gaza's uses of it are generally for the more groove oriented parts of the songs.  Lastly is Jon Parkin's roar as he cuts through the rest of the band's earth shaking heaviness with the more tongue-in-cheek lyrics from IDCWIGWID ("They used you to clean up tears after a Thrice show.") to the more straight forward bellows on HINCB ("He is never coming back.  Armies of the half dead with their arms to the sky").  Add in that, unless you're a pro-basketball player, Parkin will tower over you as his snarl tears holes through your entire belief system and it's a pretty intimidating experience. His screams sound slightly similar to The Chariot's Josh Scoggin, but exceedingly more ferocious.  Ironic considering their complete opposite views.  Both bands do have some similarities actually, but much like how Gabriel and Lucifer were both Archangels.


www.facebook.com/GAZAMUSIC

Where they started: 2004's East EP

Where you should start: I Don't Care Where I Go When I Die is the more structured and better produced release.  It has a lot more groove and the lyrics contain an air of humor.  He Is Never Coming Back is grimier and the lyrics are not only shorter and more to the point, but angrier and have a lot more bite.

Essential Song:



Essential Live Video:

Band of the Week - Inevitable End

When I was growing up, and even in my earlier adult years, I was accused of listening to the music that I like simply because it pissed off my parents (specifically, my poor mother).  While I often scoffed at the idea, maybe subconsciously it was true.  Maybe.  At my age now that would be ridiculous.  No, today it seems my subconscious has chosen a new enemy: a former band member.  Every time I show him what I've been listening to lately, in the metal world, I can feel his anger, an otherwise fairly calm individual, in his messages back to me "That's not even talent.  They're just trying to be as noisy as possible."  Because it's my subconscious that's trying to piss him off and not my lucid being, I don't even want to show him Inevitable End.

I'm guessing that since the late, great Chuck Shuldiner had already established a seminal metal band with the name Death these Swedes had to settle on the name Inevitable End.  After a few demos and multiple member changes, they released their first full length on Relapse Records.  It certainly has the Death influence, or at least influenced by other bands who were influenced by Death.  Drawing comparisons to Origin or Kill-era Cannibal Corpse, the constant blast beats and deep bellows perpetuating across The Severed Inception were accomplished with competency, but with very little originality to separate themselves from the aforementioned acts.  There are some interesting noisy and discordant riffs hidden in the few slowed down parts or even the strangely placed, but curiously engaging melodic part towards the end of the title track.

Though not abandoning the grindcore aspect of their sound, Inevitable End takes more from the technical aspects of metal than on the previous effort.  However, I've read reviews quick to compare them to Gorguts, Cynic, and The Dillinger Escape Plan.  While those aren't inaccurate inclusions, where Inevitable End make their latest release more distinct is the use of metallic hardcore elements like those of His Hero is Gone and Cursed.  Even the vocals rely less on the low growls and take on a higher pitched version of HHIG screams.  Rather than the relentless grind of the previous record, Inevitable End hollows out some of the blast beat parts of their songs allowing for the heavier sections to have a lot more punch.  Although the dissonance and hardcore influence alter the attack of Inevitable End, it's always moments like the last track that are almost a complete departure from their normal break-neck speed that capture me.  "Of Sublime Dimensions" closes the album with the same chaotic noise that drenches the rest of The Oculus, but at the slowest pace the band has ever achieved.  When the song is sped up it's done with lightly placed, twangy slide guitars over blast beats. Inevitable End have done an excellent job in creating a record for anyone who likes blisteringly fast paced music.  Lovers of death metal, grindcore, tech metal, and straight up metallic hardcore will all be pleased.

www.inevitable-end.com/
www.facebook.com/InevitableEnd

Where they started: 2004's Self Titled Demo

Where you should start: The Oculus was very recently released and is the band's most original output and I think surpasses any previous release (2 demos and one other full length).  I mean if you like that Origin or Cannibal Corpse post-Barnes sound then by all means start with The Severed Inception, but make sure you graduate to The Oculus.

Essential Song(s):

Of Sublime Dimensions by RelapseRecords

Live Performance of the Week - The Nighty Nite

I'm not familiar with The Paper Chase, but rather than be completely ignorant as to John Congleton's output prior to seeing The Nighty Nite on tour with This Will Destroy You, I decided to check out a few songs.  Violins, standup bass, keys, all banged upon as if they were drum kits as the frontman guitarist belts out his wavering vocal style that sounds like a combination of Tim Kasher of Cursive and The Dismemberment Plan's Travis Morrison?  I wonder why John even bothered changing the band name.

Compared to what I saw live and what I've recently listened to, The Nighty Nite isn't unlike The Paper Chase... at all.  Maybe there's some subtleties I'm missing out on.  Whichever, obviously not being a TPC fan before, I wasn't there to see The Nighty Nite, but they caught my attention anyway.  Seeing as how I would be a huge fan of anyone who makes the conscious effort to not sound like Tim Kasher I was ignoring the This Will Destroy You opening band.  Ordering a drink and pulling my eyes away from the cute bartender who was being chatted up by two middle aged businessmen (at a TWDY show?) I started to watch the drummer who was standing up as he played.  Looked like he had 2 snares and 2 floor toms from my perspective, but I was also hearing a kick drum.  There was no way this could be happening.  As I moved forward to see if he was merely using one of his floor toms to make the kick sound I realized he was in fact standing while using a kick.  By now, I was too close not to be sucked in by this cacophonous indie noise rock.

I once used the analogy of picking up every kitchen appliance and slamming it on a concrete floor to describe a metalcore band.  The Nighty Night gives Duck Duck Goose a worthy adversary when it comes to creating destructive noise, yet they're doing it with a strings section.  Combine that with most of the band dressed like they had just started Rumspringa and a drummer whose right arm tattoos seem to be inspired by mid-90's nu-metal (or traditional Hawaiian tattoos, I wasn't close enough to tell) and it was quite an interesting sight.  I believe the This Will Destroy You tour only has a couple of days left so you probably missed them this go around, but if you were already a fan of the pAper chAse or like your indie rock noisy and pretentious (you're already listening to underground indie rock so just embrace the pretentiousness of it all) then check out the Nighty Nite when they roll through.  I guess their EP is coming out soon, too.  Look into it.

www.thenightynite.com/
www.facebook.com/pages/The-nighty-nite/132763646739426
www.graveface.com/graveface-catalog.html

Essential Song:

The Nighty Nite 'Dimes in their Dimples' by Graveface Records

Band of the Week - Vildhjarta

Djent?  Really?  What's slightly odd is that as I was deciding which band to talk about this week, I was listening to Vildhjarta and saw a friend post about "djent" (which I'll eventually get to).  Serendipitous maybe?  Probably not for a meager little blog post.  But first, I think I should explain something about this particular endeavor, or whatever, I've voluntarily submersed myself in.  "Band (song/album/whatever) of the Week" is just that, a piqued interest this week.  It may not be my favorite artist or genre or what have you, but sometimes it could merely be a "what was that?" moment and something I feel needs to be shared.  The artist may not even have much material to sample at the moment (see: Baring Teeth a few weeks ago).  That, or it may just be a slow week for me inspiration-ally speaking.  Whatever the case, I hope I didn't just down play Vildhjarta, though I did feel compelled to write the last few sentences simply because I have chosen to discuss them.

Vildhjarta is one of the latest editions to Century Media's roster.  With a name like that they're either foreign or a black metal band from Ohio.  It's the former.  Hailing (Perfect!) from Sweden, Vildhjarta plays "djent."  Don't know what that is?  Well, it's staccato mathy chugging riffs.  You know, like Meshuggah.  If you already knew that, well, that's just silly.  According to Wikipedia (what?  This isn't a research paper) "djent" is an onomatopoetic word for the sound made when palm muting a guitar.  Are you serious?  You can't name a genre after the sound you would make with your mouth to describe it.  That's reserved for joke band names like Jud Jud.  You can call something noise or noisecore, but you can't call it "crashcore" or "asdfhdsfj-core."  It's just metal.  And that's what Vildhjarta is, a metal band from Sweden that sounds a lot like Meshuggah.

Now, I've never been a fan of Meshuggah, but I have a bunch of stupid friends so I've heard Meshuggah and many of their clones before.  I don't know if they have singing and screaming done by 2 vocalists, I don't know if they have layered atmosphere under their start stop odd-timing chugging, and I don't know if they have a 3rd guitarist bringing the member total to (crowded stage) 7.  What I do know is Vildhjarta does.  The screamed vocals are similar to Meshuggah's, but also have elements of Scott Angelacos from Bloodlet, though more akin to his output with Hope and Suicide.  I'm not really sure who the clean vocals sound like, but they're done by somebody who can actually carry a tune.  They may only have 3 proper songs (demos, mind you) floating around, but they have a download page on their website that contains a lot of samples of their, ugh, "djent" style.

vildhjarta.com/downloads/ (none of the songs under the "old stuff" heading have any vocals)
www.facebook.com/pages/vildhjarta/112205392321

Where they started: Not a clue.

Where you should start: Um, pick up their debut LP (Irreversible maybe?) whenever it comes out this year?  In the meantime check out some songs.

Essential Song:  Why not 2? "Shiver" is certainly an intriguing and engaging song.  I was lured in by the gentle ominous plucking intro before the offset of a pummeling onslaught bursts through.



Essential Live Video: So it's not a whole song, but it's kinda cool to get a feel for what they're like.