Collin Herring Past Life Crashing
Posted in Music by Sean Patrick Rhorer
First off, I find it rather surprising that Collin Herring has yet again self-released an album. His last release, The Other Side Of Kindness, was really good and I can’t believe a label didn’t snatch him up. That said, Past Life Crashing continues the pattern previously set, melding twang-tinged alternative rock akin to The Replacements with more mellow, folk/alt-country writing. The opening track, “Cellophane,” serves as a great segue from The Other Side Of Kindness with it’s upbeat, more rock feel. Quickly though, it becomes apparent Herring has been leaning more towards the quieter side. Eventually, the album concludes with “Dishes” a deep and lengthy foray into experimental territory not otherwise heard from Herring on these last two albums. While Past Life Crashing might not have the same immediate hook-laden quality as some might have come to expect, it’s still well worth checking out as a natural step forward.
Collin Herring
I’m always stoked to hear new punk bands and a split 7″ just feels like a throwback to a better era of music. Unfortunately, I let my nostalgia get my hopes a bit too high for this one. Both The Budgets and Bust! play “garage punk” and honestly, it sounds like both bands recorded in a garage with a boombox. Can we thank Jay Reatard for this seeming okay? Beyond almost unlistenable recording quality, the songwriting itself isn’t really that great. Basically, this 7″ would be best used as the raw materials in making one of those nifty ashtrays you see in vintage stores.
As I typed the title of this review, it occurred to me how funny “A Tribute To Seaweed” might sound to the majority of people who read this site, assuming they might not know of the ’90s post-hardcore band of that name. Yet, I think this unintentional (and ultimately damaging) exclusivity of Seaweed’s musical output lends a bit to understanding why a tribute might be warranted. Those who were fortunate enough to come across this unique group know of their uncanny ability to straddled the line between post-hardcore and straight-up alternative with ease and often a perfection few others accomplished. Funny enough, this tribute features a number of talent bands who also haven’t necessarily garnered the attention they might deserve, most notably Joshua, Favez, and The Fire Still Burns. Some of the covers are pretty terrible too, yet those that are good are really good. Fans of the band will appreciate this, but for those unfamiliar with Seaweed this tribute will likely be lost on them.
There’s this whole realm of contemporary hardcore with bands that never make it to the overbearing level of acts like Bane, Terror, etc. yet still maintain a strong fan base nonetheless. Despite all their efforts, these groups can’t get past some barrier. Killing The Dream are just such a band. Each new album gets better (this is absolutely true with Fractures) and they tour plenty, yet people just don’t catch onto what they’re doing as much as other bands. In part, I think Killing The Dream suffers from the common problem (and an issue I often bring up) of failing to make their melodic music catchy enough. While they have made some leap and bound improvements with this new album, it’s still a little apparent when the album ends and you don’t really have anything stuck in your head. Also, they ride the line a little too close for their own good between hardcore and the amorphis genre of bands like Shai Hulud and Life In Your Way… not really metalcore, but not really hardcore either. For the most part though, these issues are unavoidable when trying to write songs outside the box and if nothing else, they deserve credit for their attempts (some hits and some misses) to that end.
I won’t pretend to know a lot about electronic/dance music. That said, I know what I like and can distinguish that stuff from the rest of this genre. Sasha has always been a DJ I’ve found myself enjoying, whether I knew it was his music or not. This newest collection might not be a proper set, but still showcases his unrivaled finesse with trance beats over the course of both CDs. Gathering various mixes, remixes, and even an entire film score (clocking in at just over 40 minutes), these songs develop wonderful soundscapes that I imagine even other novices like myself could appreciate. If nothing else, this makes for great chill out music to throw on when you need some mellow alone time.
With their second proper release, Polar Bear Club have clearly stepped up their approach to writing punk rock. Much like their previous CD, Sometimes Things Just Disappear still demonstrates their love of the whole Hot Water Music, Leatherface, Small Brown Bike thing, yet something has finally emerged from these fellows a little more their own. The anthemic vocals and powerful riffage still fly freely, but Polar Bear Club are doing it now with more of their own spin on the overall sound. Although an improvement clearly has been made, it’s not easy to nail down what has changed (beyond better lyrics that is… the “throat” line on the last CD always sounded a little more vulgar to me than I think they intended). Ultimately, it doesn’t matter as Polar Bear Club power on with solid punk rock and are impressively starting to forge their own path.
When The Postal Service burst onto the scene, everyone kept citing their creativity and unique take on indie pop as reason for all the acclaim. Not to say they didn’t deserve the attention, but they might not of been quite as original as everyone thought. For at least a few years prior, a number of artists (almost exclusively based in Europe) were creating catchy indie tunes leaning towards the more electronic end of the spectrum… and Styrofoam was among this early group. Flash forward quite a few years and you have Styrofoam’s latest effort, the ultra-catchy yet completely smooth A Thousand Words. Continuing with the impressive nature of the previous albums, this newest release provides further proof of Styrofoam’s place among the best of this emerging genre.
Stunningly-produced garbage is still garbage, as evidenced by The Audition’s Champion. The redeeming quality one looks for in poppy, upbeat music is that it is catchy and palatable, and this album is the opposite of both. Dull, overly-simplistic chord progressions resemble something akin to the light beer version of chug. With lyrics like “Come closer to me baby/I’ve got everything you need/To fill your hunger pains tonight,” The Audition is sure to succeed in such fields as selling pizzas or being in a boy band, instead of aspiring to be legitimate career musicians. In addition, the singer pronounces the word “bed” like this: “bay-aaaah-heehhhd.”
Few bands fail to impress me over the course of various releases, only to ultimately put something out I really enjoy. Verse are among that select few. Their newest album, Aggression, demonstrates a correction in what has long been my biggest criticism of the band: a lack of catchy songwriting despite having an overall melodic leaning. Their new-found catchiness, teamed with potent socio-political lyrical content, might mark a turning point for Verse. At times, the vocal delivery sounds evocative of Rage Against The Machine era Zach de la Rocha and even when not directly reminiscent, singer Sean Murphy’s voice packs a similar heartfelt passion. So, I’ll admit it… Verse has managed to change my opinion and convert me to a fan. I’m sure I won’t be the only one after such a spectacular album.
It could easily be argued that Disfear garner the level of respect they do because of Tomas Lindberg (formerly of At The Gates and Skitsystem) being their frontman. Even if this is true, the band has offered two pummeling albums via Relapse to prove they deserve all the credit they get (not to mention a handful of other releases dating back to 1992). The newest of those albums, Live The Storm, not only showcases their punk and metal background, but also exhibits the band’s love for classic rock (think Motörhead not AC/DC). Topped with Lindberg’s trademark vocal delivery and given a rough-yet-refined recording courtesy of Converge’s Kurt Ballou, Live The Storm serves as solid proof of Disfear’s prowess. While this full-length might alienate some of the d-beat purists and attract some new, more rock-focused fans, overall it’s a good release well worth a listen.