2015 roundup part #2

Today I feel unlike a diaper that has been worn into the kiddy pool and, subsequently, swelled up to the point of exploding, so let's return to the exciting world of 'WAT I THINK ABOT BAND XD'

5.) Poor Form - Same Excuse

So I'm sort of writing this as I listen to it for the first time, so I hope you're prepared for this groundbreaking journey into music journalism we're about to embark upon IN REAL FUCKING TIME. See, when I was writing this post's header, I started to mention how it was kind of disappointing that Poor Form didn't release anything last year, as I've been wanting to blog about them forever. Apparently, though, this EP came out on December 25th,  so its like a Christmas present that got left under the radiator or something and - oh okay now it's over. 

Poor Form is a gritty pop-punk quartet from Vancouver, BC with members of Needles//Pins and Siren Songs, and this EP is apparently only seven minutes long. I'm putting it on again now, but I'm starting to see why this kind of stupid gimmick writing isn't going to be particularly useful to anyone. It sounds great so far, though - same straightforward mid-high paced gritty pop-punk sound, but with a much fuller, more lustrous production style, and a new equilibrium between Legs' and [the other vocalist]'s tradeoffs.

If you've heard their awesome 2014 demo and let it soundtrack a zillion bike rides, too, I'm sure you'll love this too, especially if you don't approach it in the ridiculously jilting, unfair way I currently am. 

6.) Hop Along - Painted Shut

This is definitely my favorite album of the year, which is fortunate, because it was getting embarrassing to own two different Hop Along shirts without even really liking their old shit. I mean, like, there was no Machiavellian scenester gerrymandering going on or anything, I just slowly concluded that Freshman Year is bizarrely back-loaded, and Get Disowned's 'studio project' style sounds more convoluted than expansive to me nowadays.
What we know: Painted Shut is fucking great and I've been dicking around on the BeerAdvocate forums for about an hour. Hence: you know how Hop Along played as a trio up until sometime in 2013, and they couldn't replicate all the overdubs so their sound got really heavy and "rocking" in a live setting? That's the young, underattenuated base beer. So then you add the adjunct of guitarist Joe Reinhardt for complexity and kidnap and age the whole band in the Saddle Creek barrel warehouse for many years to attain the pop songwriting maturity evident here. Then you tap the cask in 2015 and it's all just stale bodily fluids because you murdered a whole bunch of people through entombment. I was going to somehow throw in a bottle conditioning metaphor but this has been horrifyingly embarrassing as it is. You know what they say about taking chances: don't!
Anyway, the band's sound has become much more accessible and consistent on the whole, with tons of hooks firing on all fronts, less overdub carpet bombing, and a warm, full production style. I was going to further elaborate on the comparatively straightforward songwriting style evidenced here, but actually, I wouldn't say the band's esoteric elements are dialed down much, really - they're just re-purposed for easier listening, and largely come through by Reinhardt's nuanced guitarwork and Francis' most acrobatic-yet-melodic vocals to date. Think "Kids On The Boardwalk" and "Tibetan Pop Stars" more than "No Good Al Joad", I guess.
I'm not usually "Mr. Highlights" on stuff I think rules fairly and consistently from atop it's benign throne, but if you want a few to go on, check out "I Saw My Twin", "Waitress", and "the rest of the album". It's like, >40 minutes.

7.) Divers - Hello Hello

Here's a band from Portland with what appears to be a penis on the cover. That's the place I'm catching a plane back to tomorrow at 5 in the fucking morning. To think - I wouldn't be afforded this sort of awesome, fundamental experience if reality wasn't increasingly slipping from my fingers with such velveteen luxury. Some days you get the plane, and other days you don't get the plane because you are apparently losing your grasp on reality and would've sworn you booked your flight two days later than you missed it. Anyway, my ass.
Divers are a band I know nothing about and sound like something I'd hate. They've got that now notorious blend of heartland rock and Midwest pop-punk/alt rock down pat, have dramatic, furrowed brow, bobbing-adam's-apple-passionate vocals, some 'whoa ohs', and lyrics that come from the Springsteen school of Americana. I think. They're kinda hard to understand, tbh, and they're one of those bands that doesn't put their lyrics on their bandcamp.
Weirdly, I actually really fucking like this, and could maybe only pick out one track I don't really care for out of the ten present. If that description puts you off as xhardcorex as it did me, know that this isn't some radio tailored Gaslight Anthem cheesecockery, where you can play bingo with the words "drive", "Maria", "radio" and a slew of allusions that'd practically get you called out on tumblr for 'working class cultural appropriation'. Like, you totally get the lingering odor of dipstick-wiped-on-Levi's and unfiltered Camels, but there's no cherry-picked period stereotypes resting on a pop-rock framework here. These songs all sound organic, loose, and flowing as they bounce around between sweaty anthemic shit to quiet, slinking numbers without really repeating themselves. I've rarely put much of an emphasis on musical talent in my life, but sometimes something like this gets to you and you realize how limited most of the stuff you like is in terms of creative songwriting. I honestly don't know who to recommend this stuff to, but I've been playing this regularly for the past 3 months and I notice new bits everytime I put it on. If you want a few tracks to go on, check out "Listen Teller", "Breathless", and "Stateline". Maybe I'll actually leave my house to go see these guys when they play a zillion times directly in my neighborhood.