Age Sixteen

It seems like everything I write on this page starts off this way, but once again: Bad name, awesome music. I was a little skeptical of Age Sixteen when I first found them; I discovered them because they added my band to their Myspace. I generally like to check out every band I add to that thing (even though its mostly to up my own play count) and the bands are usually just plain awful. Before the songs loaded up, this one looked the same, advertising former members of xMoshMetalSoundingBandNamex. Still, they listed Braid in their "sounds like" section, so I gave em a try.



Well, they don't sound like Braid. What they do sound like is a really screamy variation on the modern emo revival sound that's going on, and a good one at that. It kind of reminds me of a less creepy take on Stop It!! or a less technical Hot Cross. The vocals are anti-melodic screams, but have a nice tone and sound passionate enough to make them sound somewhat fresh. Age Sixteen writes catchy songs and if their three song demo is any indication, good things are bound to come of this band.

Album Review: Bridge and Tunnel - East / West

A lot of this review is going to sound negative, but that's just because I really LIKE Bridge and Tunnel. They're a great band, and I enjoy them quite a bit; in theory anyway. They're playing music along the lines of what I love and doing a pretty good job at it. They're solid players, and they have their own sound. I'm thankful for any band who isn't recycling bad screamo that people pretend to like to get girls, or making insanely pretentious indie nonsense that people pretend to like to feel smart. They're treading along the lines of great bands of the past like Braid; like great modern bands like Street Smart Cyclist and Algernon Cadwallader. But on their full length debut, East / West, something just isn't right. Something is missing, and I feel like they're capable of so much more than they present here. The songs on this release are all just really hit or miss for the most part, and that's a shame considering their potential.

I first became aware of Bridge and Tunnel when I saw them open for the last On the Might of Princes (one of my favorite bands) reunion show. Immediately, the band impressed me with their confidence, their stage presence, and how tight they were. It's also always good to see girls in a band in equal numbers to the boys, and not just stuck behind a keyboard, but out front rocking out. They were the surprise of the show for me, and I went home and downloaded their demo, which was a solid 4 song release that I still enjoy.

On East / West, the band finds themselves treading along similar grounds. And at first, it works. The start of this cd is really strong, with songs like the opener, Wartime Souvenirs, which has a nice jangly guitar line and displays singer Jeff's voice off nicely. The first five songs are all good, with a slight misstep at Night Owls - the Maps and Atlases style intro doesn't work for me, and it goes immediately into vocals by guitarist Rachel. She's a very talented girl, but I've been seeing her sing since her old band Regarding I played at this shitty little storage garage venue called the Local 7, and I've never been able to get into her voice. Still, this song doesn't ruin anything, and the buildup continues. The first five songs culminate with the song Rubrics, far and away the best song on this album. A very good guitar part is matched with seriously catchy vocals, and comes together exactly how the entirety of the album should have.



And that should've been it. This release should have ended right here, at the climax. All said and done this would've made a wonderful EP...unfortunately, there is more than half of the cd left to go, and it ventures into territory that teeters on the edge of boring and just plain mediocre. Nothing is terrible or insulting to listen to, but it just keeps going and by the time The World Series, the album's cliche and predictably placed instrumental, hits, I was ready to throw my headphones to the ground. I can almost appreciate what they were trying to do here, venturing into slightly dreamier territory, but it doesn't work and just ends up feeling exhausted and stubborn.

Bridge and Tunnel's problem is that they're good at making music that sounds interesting at first, but has very little to hook the listener with. They take a very stream-of-consciousness approach to songwriting, flowing from point A to point B and rarely venturing back. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, but their songs all sound very similar and follow almost identical dynamics blueprints. Without hooks or variation to differentiate them, all the songs mush into one after a while, and the listener is often left wondering if the track has even changed yet. Vocally, I think Jeff's got the tone and the power to make things sound convincing, but his vocal lines suffer from the same meandering as the rest of the music. The girls' voices are fine as a backup, and they add good dynamics with their layering, but any time Rachel comes to the forefront I start frantically flailing my hands at the forward button. In addition to this, the lyrics kind of strike me as talking to a college kid who's trying to be poignant for poignancy's sake; there's some noble sounding ideas but it's all fluffed with a bunch of what just sounds like hot air.



The 2nd half of the cd isn't ENTIRELY boring, as the song "Down for My People Like Joe Carroll" is one of the best songs the band has ever written, but I stand by the fact that this should've replaced Night Owls in the first five songs and been released as an EP. As is, this album is a 5 at best from a band who could easily be putting out an 8. All that said, I still do really like Bridge and Tunnel, and doubt this is the last we'll hear from them. Hopefully next time they focus a bit more in diversifying the dynamics and less time running over the same ground. You can hear the whole thing for yourself thanks to the fine people at Punknews.org. It's at the very least worth a look.

Standout Tracks
Rubrics
Down for My People Like Joe Carroll

Worst tracks
Dear sir
The World Series
Grace for these wayward hearts

5 out of 10

Le Rug

I'm completely fascinated by the cycles that music takes. Ask me five months ago if there are any good bands currently playing in the underground music scene that all the kids with their shaggy hair seem to like, and I would tell you maybe two or three names off the top of my head and subsequently go off on a diatribe about how much I dislike modern indie and how full of shit everything is. I would then put down the bottle of whiskey I was sipping in between every odd word or so, in a forceful enough manner to smash it to pieces, and apologize profusely for wasting 20 minutes of your time. My, how times change! I now find myself knee deep in bands that are either completely awesome or at the very least interesting, and as a result have been able to switch back to malt liquor to quell my nightly demons.

One of those bands in the "Completely awesome" category is New York's Le Rug, yet another instance of a band with a name I hate making wonderful music. The brains behind this band is some 19 year old kid named Ray, who was in some band called the Medics (who weren't as nearly good from what I've heard). According to the always-credible internet, Ray has quite a story; In a very short period of time, he was approached by label execs who gave him a shitty deal that included selling out his band, rejected this, got dumped by some girl, tried to kill himself, landed in a mental institution for a few days, broke up his band, then wrote a whole album in a week that he only recently released. Phew. But I mean, seriously, who hasn't had a week like that?

Getting down to how the music sounds, the song Gaxinthaw was the first thing I heard, and it very immediately and completely gripped me. It has such a big, catchy intro and then immediately thrusts you into the oncoming traffic that is the rest of the song. It has a serious lo-fi indie feel to it (you can tell he's obsessed with The Fall; he named a whole album after a Fall song) and a great vocal line. Le Rug's music bounces back between loud, top-of-the-lungs style rock (Gaxinthaw) and a dark, moody shadow of hooky pop music (The Loveless Fuzz). It has something of a dancey feel, and with two drummers, it has a very big rhythm section to get people moving. Guitars are fuzzy and keyboards are sharp, and everything gets cobbled together into a muddy mess which actually ends up sounding pretty dern super cool. I've only been able to hear the songs on the Myspace and a few I've tracked down on various blogs, but most of what I've heard makes me want so much more. And is there more.



Even someone who hates this band would have to give them credit for being prolific; they just came out with their third or fourth release this YEAR. Considering I've been trying to put a second album together with my band for the last, oh...two fucking years now, well, that just blows my mind. I haven't been totally in love with every single song I've heard by them, but none have been necessarily bad per se, just not my thing. And when you're putting out the volume of music they are, that's impressive.