Carpenter come to us by way of Smallman Records and the lush, rich forests of British Columbia. Like a fine craftsman, only the best materials were selected in the making of this band; taking from talented members from groups All State Champion, By A Thread, Daggermouth and Speaking of Heroes.
There seems to be a trend these days of ex-hardcore guys coming together and playing a slower-paced kind of rock, but still able to withhold their roots in the heavier genres. Carpenter are part of this long line-up of bands (starting with Cave In and Codeseven) that realized the pace needed to be a bit slower, taking lyrics and musicianship into the spotlight. It may be that the guys are getting older and the frantic pace has caught up to them and are looking to expand their role as musicians and dive into something with, dare I say, more substance.
Carpenter do a great job of meshing a lot of styles together, creating an honest rock-outfit that speaks to their label mates Sick City and Sights & Sounds. Carpenter get even more creative though with the addition of a harmonica on the track “off the road” which has a barn-dance style ending that is not usually what you hear on records like this.
I really like the bands that Smallman are putting out these days – they all share similar threads in musical style, but each quite unique and have enough separating them to be an fan of each. Perhaps they know something that I don’t and can foresee the coming trend of indie super-groups bursting out of the west coast and are snatching them up, with due cause.
Carpenter, as I had mentioned earlier are the result of a fine craftsman putting together tools needed to make an outstanding debut and indie-punk record. Everything falls into place; each cut is precise and the work contains no filler.
Empire Empire (I was A Lonely Estate) Year of The Rabbit Lucky Stars 2008
Written by stefan
Saturday, 31 May 2008
Say what you will about the name (I haven’t figured it out either) but the Double-E seem to pack a lot of punch into a small package.
This being only 7 inches-round and 2 songs deep, make up the proverbial cock-tease that is Year of The Rabbit. Coming off the heels of 2006’s fucking fantastic When The Sea Became a Giant (but now with a backing band), Empire Empire are back with the familiar sound of this resurgence of the spatial/emotional indie we were blessed with a decade ago. The songs are about 4 minutes each, but somehow each one feels like an album in itself, the instruments carefully drifting along while the vocals shared by Keith and Cathy tip-toe their way through the track. The songs aren’t so much about the music or the lyrics, their voices are used as instruments themselves; complimenting rather than overpowering. It’s more of a “hey, lets make beautiful music” rather than “hey, I have something to say”.
I don’t even know what the best part about EE is – everything just fits. Year of the Rabbit is just a puzzle piece to what the band represents and the tiny, spinning disc just crackles with honesty and perhaps it can ignite the fuse to resurgence into introspective, methodical indie-rock.
Their full length is due later on in the year on Count Your Lucky Stars. Take the love of your life.
I’ve never been to Kingston, Pennsylvania but I have been to Scranton. It seemed nice, and appropriate for The Office to be based there. A sleepy town in America’s heartland surrounded by rolling green hills and full of the charm one would expect. Maybe there’s just nothing to do in PA besides play in punk bands, but that sounds much better than working in a paper supply office. As for Kingston though, some of it’s notable accomplishments including sending one (1) resident to major league baseball…in 1905…and his name was Steamer.
My point here is that the second best thing to come out of Kingston PA is Title Fight. If your bread and butter involves spinning Lifetime/Kid Dynamite or ancient Saves The Day records then this 7 incher fits perfectly amongst its seasoned brethren.
Title Fight unleash just 7 and-a-half minutes of music on the appropriately titled Kingston EP, but they do not disappoint. The songs are tight, quick, to the point and their influences are made clear. They play what they know and love, there are no pretentious tracks here, and it’s straight up blood and sweat. The same kind of ideals their neighbours in Pittsburgh are accustomed to.
They are young bastards too, so my money would be on them returning with a full-length that not only takes a walk down memory lane, but also serves up some fresh ideas in the punk-rock game these days are lacking.
I’m not sure what their name means but perhaps it is an acronym. I’m not even going to try and guess what it means.
Take note though, that Astpai = Awesome. These guys from Austria are certainly doing it right. With similarities to Kid Dynamite and Ashes Rise, they take the tightly-wound melodies of punk rock and the anxiousness of hardcore and use them to their advantage.
The disc is very, very quick. At 30 minutes, it just blazes by in a fury of restrained aggression and does not let up from start to finish. Astpai are political in nature, performing lyrics that push for an awareness of your surroundings and to simply be intelligent. There is nothing more easily hated then a blind-sheep and all Astpai are looking for is for their listeners to questions their surroundings.
If you like any of the above mentioned bands and are looking for something fresh to bang your head to – stop at Astpai and enjoy how the Austrians get down; with fists pumping.
This little gem is merely a preview to an upcoming full-length out this Summer on Red-Leader.
Scream hello give us the proverbial blue-balls in their offering of 5 tracks that tickle the fancy of many pop-punk/rock lovers everywhere. Scream Hello are so good at combining many different elements of punk/emo/indie in such a subtle way it’s hard to tell its even happening – but you know something is happening on each track. It just doesn’t sound one-dimensional, it’s got layers, like an onion. Peel back the skin and you’re crying, but shedding tears of joy.
They have taken all these different influences and tossed them into a blender (yes, it DOES blend!) and have come up with a very unique sound, one that I hope to explore further once their full-length comes out this summer.
