And if there is a heaven… Though I believe there’s no heaven… she’s probably dancing with you. She liked to dance. She would’ve liked you… When my pretty girlfriend heard you’d died… she cried and cried and cried.” –Mama Gina, 1000 Hurts
Technically he died yesterday but we didn’t find out until today. We were all big fans. Like I keep saying ‘they are the lucky ones. The rest of us have to go on with our lives without them.’
Here’s my favorite quote from my favorite Shellac song (the rest of this is just ripped from wikipedia);
“To the one true god above, here is my prayer. Not the first you’ve heard, but the first I wrote. Not the first but the others were a long time ago. There are two people here, and I want you to kill them…
Her she can go quietly by disease or a blow. To the base of her neck where her necklaces close, where her gardens come together, where I used to lay my face. That’s where you oughtta kill her, in that particular place..
Him just fucking kill him I don’t care if it hurts. Yes I do, I want it to. Fucking kill him but first, make him cry like a woman–no particular woman. Let him hold out, hold fast… Someone or other might come and FUCKING KILL HIM, FUCKING KILL HIM. Kill him just fucking kill him. Kill him fucking kill him, Kill him already kill him. Kill him fucking kill him, kill him just fucking kill him.
AH FUCKING KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM ALREADY KILL HIM KILL HIM FUCKING KILL HIM KILL HIM ALREADY KILL HIM ALREADY…
Kill him, fucking kill him. Kill him just fucking kill him. Kill him, fucking kill him, fucking kill him.
AMEN.”
Albini was born in Pasadena, California, to Gina (née Martinelli) and Frank Addison Albini. On his birth certificate, the middle name section says “(None)” as his father refused to leave it blank.[4] His father was a wildfire researcher. He had two siblings.[5][6][7][8] In his youth, Albini’s family moved often, before settling in the college town of Missoula, Montana, in 1974.[5] Albini was Italian American, and some of his family are from the Piedmont region of Northern Italy.[6]
While recovering from a broken leg, Albini began playing bass guitar and participated in bass lessons in high school for one week. He was introduced to the Ramones by a schoolmate on a field trip when he was 14 or 15. He felt it was the best music he had ever heard and bought every Ramones recording available to him, and credits his music career to hearing their first album.[5][9][10] He said, “I was baffled and thrilled by music like the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Pere Ubu, Devo, and all those contemporaneous, inspirational punk bands without wanting to try to mimic them.”[11]
During his teenage years, Albini played in bands including the Montana punk band Just Ducky, the Chicago band Small Irregular Pieces of Aluminum, Stations, and another band that record label Touch and Go/Quarterstick Records explained “he [Albini] is paying us not to mention”.[12]
After graduating from Hellgate High School,[Albini moved to Evanston, Illinois, to attend college at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where he earned a degree in journalism.[13] He said that he studied painting in college with Ed Paschke, someone he calls a brilliant educator and “one of the only people in college who actually taught me anything”.[14]
In the Chicago area, Albini was active as a writer in local zines including Matter and Forced Exposure, covering the then-nascent punk rock scene, and gained a reputation for the iconoclastic nature of his articles. About the same time, he began recording musicians and engineered his first album in 1981. He co-managed Ruthless Records (Chicago) with John Kezdy of the Effigies and Jon Babbin (Criminal IQ Records). According to Albini, he maintained a “straight job” for five years until 1987, working in a photography studio as a photograph retouch artist.
Also a personal plug if you don’t mind (we’re sad but that doesn’t stop us from needing money to live); we’re trying to open a physical store instead of just being online like we have been since there was only an AOL and Prodigy.
Maple Stave is a hardworking post-hardcore band that’s been grinding out good ep’s and albums since back in aught 3. From Durham North Carolina (not too far from the famous indie rock bastion of Chapel Hill), their special flavor involves 2 baritones and recently an added fuzzy bass guitar for your extra low end pleasure. After 5 releases that exhibited some growth and change but pretty much stuck to the same sound genre playbook, they recently released their standout album ‘Arguments’. And while the title may fool you into thinking this is another band paying tribute to Fugazi’s final similarly titled album (or maybe it is; esoteric references to other rock bands abound on the album), this album represents a pivotal change in their sound, specifically the higher powered vocals and melodies.
Though the underlying instrumentation is akin to and developed from their many years grinding in the post-math rock game, the often harmonized high in the mix vocal melodies are for the first time evocative of the unholy cross breed of hardcore with prog rock. And while it has been done before (most famously by At the Drive In, the Mars Volta and their acolytes), Maple Stave’s version is no one dimensional imitation nor does it sound derivative in any way. This may be the result of their highly skilled use of midwestern math rock style baritone and basslines that are, to ears like mine, the sweet sweet sound of the drudgery of home. Or the fact that instead of putting the ethereal more commercially pleasing prog melodies on all of the songs, they instead utilize the anti-commercial self indulgence of purely instrumental pure post jam jamming on tracks like “Good Luck in Green Bay”, “Cool Attitude’ and the (Helmet tribute?) “Downtown Julie Brown”.
However, much as I enjoy the unbearably catchy chorus to the album’s standout track “The French Song”, if you listen close you can hear a bit of Journey’s Separate Ways (not that that’s such a bad thing mind you — lousiest air synth playing music video though it may have been, the song is pure delectable Motown and not quite prog). That being said, the emotional depth and weight of tunes like The French Song, featuring a maximalist, unusually off kilter (even for the math rock genre) drum line under minimal sustained fuzzy bass and baritone notes coupled with the subtly almost dully whispered single vocals of part 1 followed by a full on assault of grinding of bass and baritone lines, driving noise rock percussion rhythm with the booming, harmonized up in the mix vocal melody truly brooks no genuine similarity to anything as hollow as pop prog in any way. However, most people do put the majority of weight on the vocal melodies of songs and will hear and remember them far more than the rest of the music. And tracks like Cincinatti Hairpiece and Thunderkiss ’85 are quite weightily indebted to At-the Drive Ins melodic guitar lines and screamed emo-prog lyrics that evoke extremity of feelings far more than make sense… The emo goes even further on “Keep Charging the Enemy” and “I’m not Tied to Pretty” with instrumentation and melodies that are damned near pretty. But if any of that sounded negative to you, the sheer overall quality of these tunes and especially that sweet spot between harsh buzz and evocative pith (most evident on album opener “Indian Ocean, Present Day”) makes this a record worth overlooking all things borrowed and just enjoying the quality and growth of a truly sincere group with truckloads of integrity.
I must admit I believe the majority of the lyrics are either abstractly emotionally evocative or go over my head with the exception of ‘Thunderkiss ’85’. The fact that this is exactly 20 years after the “demon warp came alive” makes me think that perhaps every line I don’t understand is also an arcane reference, just one that I don’t get. This song seems to paint a tale of an America (world) that fucked everything up around 1985, when it started unashamedly redistributing wealth from the poor to the rich. Obviously it’s more complicated then that, but it’s one of the few songs with big meaning I thought was discernible — and honestly if I’m right who would argue with that thesis? To the x-ers and millenials it certainly seems “this is how things began to end” in ’85 with income inequality and unchecked corporate power, not the sexual and social changes of ’65 as previous generations thought.
Despite all my bullshit hipsterish criticisms above (that for some reason always make people think I dislike things more than I do), I mean to say I really like this record. And the one before it. And the band. I have a great deal of respect for true hardworking musicians that stick to their guns and write and play and tour non-stop for either the joy of it or just because they feel compelled by the Spirit (of rock). And if they play my town I’ll definitely be the first one there. Let’s hope this is just the most current in a long line of great records far into the future!
Recently everyone was taken aback when it was announced that Nippertown was being acquired by the Schenectady Gazette. Tirelessly hardworking frontman Jim Gilbert, after expanding the original site immeasurably by adding all kinds of content and art genres, recently completed setting up and running the second Nipperfest, which went from a small show with famous local bands to THE festival event of Albany featuring over a dozen local music acts for an entire day. There seemed to be nothing Jim, who was working the equivalent of 2 full time jobs at Nippertown WHILE working another full time job just to pay the bills, could not accomplish. And now it appears he’s receiving his well deserved reward, selling out to the old boys club of established local media! Have a cigar buddy! (we kid we kid we love you Jim!)
Our buddy and HUGE SUCCESS Jim Gilbert, runner of Nippertown (which recently sold out to the Schenectady Gazette)
And now for our own good news…
Not to be outdone, the Times Union decided to acequire an independent site of their own to supplement their music coverage. And since there happened to already be a local Albany/Troy underground site that famously covered local superhip music AND had a name that was very similar, the TIMES UNION IS GOING TO ACQUIRE TIMES BOREDOM! Watch TU and all the other local old guard major media outlets for the announcement, but for now know that we here at Times Boredom (and our indefatigable helmsman Scott Koenig pictured below) are also moving on to bigger and better things! We’ve been real lazy lately after our exhausive best local bands of 2022 series of articles, partly because our writers have been poached by other local publications (including and esp Nippertown), but rest assured that this merger will provide enough funds for us to re-hire and re-poach our writers and more! We’re gonna be a real local media music magazine! We’re gonna get our shit together and stop just covering the original superhip superdark underground stuff playing at No Fun and branch out to cover the groups that have their own marketing street teams and play covers and big festivals and rich people’s houses etc etc and we’re gonna get mad paid.
Details to come. Keep watching the media!
Times Boredoms’ fearless leader Scott Koenig (who recently sold out to the Times Union)
That’s right Capital Regioneers, our favorite band this year is a well known duo of hardcore scene vets called dblgoer! Though they’ve only been around a couple of years, they’ve played their way into our hearts and pants.
dblgoer in their natural state: performing at a Superdark show at Desperate Annie’s in Saratoga Springs
dblgoer (or doublebasslifegrowingbrighter as it’s pronounced in ancient algebraic where it they hail from) is made up of Matt Heuston (aka Matth also of Glitter of Cohoes, Che Guevara T-Shirt, Friends of the Library, Catacomb Gypsy Vagina, and Lack of) on guitar, highly processed vocals and pedals and John Olander (of the Sugar Hold, Handsome Faces, Che Guevara T-Shirt, and THE Latent) on percussion and various electronics and pedals. This super experienced post-rock duo has graced stages from Albany to Troy, from Saratoga Springs to… Troy!
While it’s true they haven’t been on tour yet and keep recording, mixing, rerecording, remixing, and unrecording their as yet to be released single/album… tracks? they’ve certainly made astonishing inroads with fans and readers of Times Boredomland, who have voted the newcomers to the top spot in the first year they’re eligible for the list!
An image as mysterious as the band and their highly original eclectic post music that came from their bandcamp page
Being new gives dblgoer an incredible opportunity to define and redefine themselves as they see fit, as all that anyone really knows is they’re a couple of gingers that’ve been in a dozen local bands that have now found their own unique voice as a highly popular highly anticipated duo showcasing both of their many idiosyncratic talents.
In addition to also, having won this honor surprised no one moreso than dblgoer themselves. While their shows have been well attended, they didn’t realize the dizzying heights of popularity they’d risen to within their brief period bombarding the scene with many gigs within a small period of time. To show their appreciation, they agreed not only to answer our survey questions but also to pose for glamor photos (below):
Interestingly enough this number one slot came with cash prize money. Unfortunately, Times Boredom required a professional electronic press kit (epk) to collect this prize. And although dblgoer did produce an epk, it did not contain any pictures of the band members without instruments staring blankly at the camera or looking away thoughfully. Since said photo is a requirement for a pro epk, dblgoer did not receive any of the cash. Here is the photo they submitted instead.
TimesBoredom: Congratulations on being in Times Boredom’s Top 10 local bands! Honestly, how much of an honor is this for you?
Matt Heuston aka matth: It’s the most we could’ve hoped for
TB: Did you release any music in 2022?
matth: No, but there were some live things on youtube. WE did some demos, but held off on doing anything with them.
TB: What was your favorite show that you played in 2022?
matth: Maybe our Desperate Annie’s show with sky furrows, because Sky Furrows is great. But all the DA shows were fun to play, owing to the sound of the room and the people that come out for Super DArk Mondays .
So in addition to all the ‘in addition to’ stuff we wrote about 100 Psychic Dreams in our earlier article, Superdark superstar of the Psychic Dream Waves Shane Sanchez responded to our survey questions.
…And here they are!
Times Boredom (TB): Congratulations on being in Times Boredom’s Top 10 local bands! Honestly, how much of an honor is this for you?
Here’s our man, 100 Psychic Dreams in the bricks behind him. Sometimes theyre red, sometimes they’re, um, brick.
100PsychicDreams — hereinafter referred to as ‘1PD’ and yes we think that’s funny /Shane Sanchez: It’s a real shocker!!
TB: Did you release any music in 2022?
1PD: Only a couple of collaborations. Mostly played shows and promoted my 2021 release Bronze Stroker
TB: What was your favorite show that you played in 2022?
1PD: The Sime Gezus album release for sure! Awesome producer showcase with Albany artists PJ Katz, Big Malk, Mitochi, Devin B & myself and killer performances by Sime, JB!!, Juice Mega and Grimewav. What a night!
TB: Who was YOUR favorite local band in 2022?
1PD: I’m gushing all over Prom Sex right now.
TB: Do you have any plans for 2023?
1PD: Lots of collaborations! Excited about my work with Jason Martin, a handful of hip hop artists, working on new Bloodx3 and my second album is almost complete!
And for extra fun (and extra super fucking awesome seriously here ppl you know this is THE SHIT) here’s the collaboration from the superspooky ‘Do the Fright Thing Volume 8’ with 100 Psychic Dreams and Jason ‘Wolfman’ Martin (take a listen… if you liked this article, 100 Psychic Dreams, or anything Times Boredom does in general you should absolutely have a listen to this mindblowingly cool collab between two of our favorite people in the local music scene!:
Making their first appearance on our top ten chart this year is 100 Psychic Dreams, the experimental electronics project of our good buddy Superdark Shane Sanchez!
Most recent 100 Psychic Dreams album cover for ‘Bronze Stoker’, released May 2021
In addition to ruling the scene, Shane Sanchez has been making experimental electronic music for quite some time now. His latest project 100 Psychic Dreams seems to have struck a huge chord with the Capital Region superhip underground music scene (you know, the scene that we’re into and cover). Since 2021 100 Psychic Dreams has released about 2 albums’ worth of material and several singles, including idiosyncratic VHS mashup recordings, experimental illbient, innovative hip hop beats and backing tracks, and a groundbreaking cover of hip old Iggy Pop classic ‘Night Clubbing’
In addition, the electronist (electronicist? Synther? DJ? MC?!!!) has been playing live all over the Capital Region — especially in Troy at our favorite No Fun joint. 100 Pyschic Dreams has also been providing beats for local hip hop shows, playing the aforementioned cover of landmark Iggy Pop song ‘Nightclubbing’ live for the No Fun anniversary fest, improv sets, providing backup beats for various projects…
The cover that won MY heart for 100 Psychic Dreams, a project putting sick beats together with classic 80s horror movies called ‘VCR Vortex Vol. 1’. 100 Psychi Dreams does IT ALL
So is 100 Psychic dreams a DJ/MC? Is it an experimental electronic project? “Synth drenched grimy beat magick”? The beat machine for the entire 518 music machine? Hell yeah it is! It’s like, 100 different things in 1!
And it’s “PSYCHIC”!
(So I’m guessing they knew they’d be number 2 on our charts right out the gate and have been celebrating in advance, laying down those funky beats and noisey treats for all of us to dance dance dance…)
Sky Furrows has the unbearable burden of being in the Times Boredom top ten more than any other band in the Capital District. But honestly, how could they not be? Times Boredom is indisputably the arbiter of everything that’s cool (and cool enough to not take itself too seriously) in the Capital Region and has been since 2015.
And is there any cooler band you can think of than this motley gang of 4 vets of the up (and sometimes down)state New York scenes? Every single member of Sky Furrows has carved a name for themself individually in a way that, if there were like a twenty year golden watch given out by the lord of the underground cool, they’d all have one. And NOW they’d all have 3 rings they could kiss (like those asshole Patriot fans — sorry our Editor’s a HUGE Yankees fan and will NOT hear of any story that doesn’t disparage the Bruins at any opportunity we can possibly get…)
And the truth is if ever there was a time for me to say my famously overused ‘Ah hell I done interduced them enough’ Big Lebowski quote it’d be now since Sky Furrows has won just about every award we put out, been reviewed and mocked and praised so many times by Times Boredom there’s nothing left to do but repeat myself… So this time I’m not gonna start going a hundred feet deep with Rambutan and Parashi and links to collaborations with Mike Watt and whatever else…
Instead, I’ll just tell you what they said to me when I asked them some interview questions like ‘how great is it to be in Times Boredom’s top ten YET AGAIN and how surprised are you…’
I’m even getting a lot of use out of this photo. I think I’ve posted it several times. Give someone else a chance to win will you Sky Furrows?!
Congratulations on being in Times Boredom’s Top 10 local bands! What was your favorite show that you played in 2022? Who was YOUR favorite local band in 2022?
Karen Schoemer (for Sky Furrows): One of our favorite local bands is the Scurves! Love them Scurves!
TB: Do you have any plans for 2023?
KS: We did not release new material in 2022, but we did record a new album in Katonah NY and Easthampton MA and we’re hoping to get it out by the end of the year!
And that’s it. We done tell you all there is to tell. Seriously I really am tired of introducting them. I do this to promote local bands and if all I’m really doing is giving them awards every year and saying how great they are what does that really accomplish? I gotta rethink my choices bro. Seriously.
I gotta admit, I clicked on this. https://nippertown.com/2022/12/24/sounds-o-the-season-sirsys-santa-baby/ Watched it for about 10 seconds before i recognized it was exactly what I thought it would be and had no interest in seeing it. This is why some cool underground publication like Times Boredom needs to step up and publish more content.
And we all know it’s out there just waiting to be found and distributed more widely.
Here’s a great example: Haunted Cat made an entire half hour Christmas special a couple years ago; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYBvbfPwztE (they also made a Halloween special, but it is Christmas and all depending on when you read this — that’s another thing. We all know that people visit Nippertown on a daily basis but Times Boredom’s only visited when a) your band or someone you know is mentioned b) when you find out about it which is typically not the same day so 5f) there’s a .00001% chance anyone will read this on Christmas). The production values may not be as flawless as the Sirsy video, and there may not be any ‘sexy dames’ baby singing ‘Santa Baby’, but come on. This thing is hilarious. There’s genuine humor here, and not just the kind you can milk by mocking an old style mr. rogers type christmas special. And in addition to the funny corny holiday cheer, there’s a number of terrific rock performances by… well I’m not going to ruin it for you because I really think you should watch it yourself (that’s kind of the point here). But there’s no link to this special, on Nippertown, Keep Albany Boring, Times Union, or any other local music and arts sites.
It probably sounds like I’m singling out Nippertown, however, I really appreciate Nippertown and think it’s the best site there is for local Capital District music and arts news, promotions, and just information in general. And in terms of music, they do coverage of all kinds of local music including underground stuff that other local publications in other cities would stay away from in order to get more sponsors or advertisers etc., to make more money. But Nippertown really is more concerned about helping people to enjoy the arts scene around town. So in addition to the Sirsy video they posted today they posted one by Warden and Co. and one by Taini Asili and the Messiahs. Nippertown is great; but because they are what they are they want to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Unfortunately that often means groups like Sirsy, Super 400 and the Figgs that have been around for 30 years and have real PR machines get way more coverage than a group that’s just starting out like say, the Sugar Hold. The Sugar Hold is making enormous waves in the underground community, but in terms of local music time they’ve only been around an instant and as such they’re still building not only their fanbase, but their relationships with local media, their productions, multi-media presentations, etc.
So what’s the real problem? I suppose this is as close to an ‘editorial’ as we come here at Times Boredom (perhaps I should add that as a category/tag since my lazy ass has written 2 or 3 of these now) so I just want to say that there’s so much great underground music right now in the Capital District I feel like we could really be a mecca for a strong ‘alternative’ (term used correctly even if doesn’t apply musically) collective of recordings, performances, and overall knowledge by a large audience in the area that would really appreciate the music but just doesn’t know about it.
I mean if you were new to town and came from a larger city, and you looked for local music and saw Sirsy, you’d be like ‘I guess punk rock really IS dead, especially in this jerkwater burg. I’m just gonna listen to my old Minor Threat record again. There’s plenty of classics to keep me happy enough’. And you’d ignore every aspect of the local scene because you’d figure there really wasn’t anything of substance to see.
Another unchangeable issue is that as much great music as there is around (and there pretty much ALWAYS is, even in cities as small as ours in the US), it’s all about giving it a platform, getting groups together, dissemination and distribution. In short, a ‘scene’ needs to be created. And of course the ‘scene’ brings to mind all the stupid terrible things it entails like small town big egos, in groups and out groups, enmity amongst microniches, etc etc. (if you’ve ever been in one you know exactly what I mean). But what’s much worse is not having a scene at all. You’ve got a thousand people in their basements and apartments writing and recording music, playing in small groups with just their close personal friends, house shows where the band outnumbers the audience and the cops get called after a couple songs. Self indulgence, legends in their own minds, the complete lack of appreciation that makes would be greats quit before they get started, isolation and atomism and lack of competition. All of which are overcome by a scene that certainly does bring out bad aspects, but also often brings out the best of the music. Interrelationships, genre crossovers, the competition that makes everyone better (my favorite example is the Minutemen being inspired to write and record Double Nickels on the Dime in response to Husker Du’s double album Zen Arcade. Would either of these have happened without a national ‘scene’ based around SST, a network of punk rock clubs and people, and the PR and promotions that occurred — what little there were — were SO important that today someone like me (and hopefully you) know what they are and can appreciate them).
And we have the building blocks for a great scene that could even potentially breakout and have people saying ‘there are fantastic things going on right now in underground rock and punk in Troy and the surrounding areas’. And you know me, I believe the Superdark Collective is responsible for a great deal if not most of this network, collaboration, word of mouth, etc. And now growing on the success of much of what the Superdark Collective generated we have No Fun, a great club in Troy that plays host to so much of the terrific underground music we have around town. It gives the loners in their basements (not making fun; I AM one) something to strive for. A reason to record and distribute. A reason to ask their friends who plays bass guitar and if anyone knows a drummer. These are the organizing factors that create little revolutions, that make music scenes like Seattle, Mineapolis, and Chapel Hill break out so that maybe mainstream listeners don’t know, but folks that are into underground music have their lives vastly improved. Seriously.
If you read this you’ll probably think it’s a useless rambling editorial that won’t solve anything. And you’re right. Because like you I work a full time job and don’t have the time to edit this, make sure it makes sense, or strengthen the points I really want to make about how this publication, Times Boredom, really needs to step up and cover the specific musical niches that are burgeoning around here — the noise scene, the electronic scene, post hardcore, punk, and metal. I’m not criticizing wide reaching sites like Nippertown because I think they’re doing anything wrong, but because I think they’re doing what’s right for them and not just covering what’s already thriving and has its own means of DIY promotion and distribution but EVERYTHING/as much as they can. The reason I began (and talked WAY too much about) with Sirsy is that often means that whatever’s canned and has worked its mainstream appeal factors out, the heavily processed pre-mixed defrosted previously fully cooked spam that doesn’t need the coverage or promotion and is just overpeddling a mediocre product at best is what gets the attention and dissemination it doesn’t need or deserve. We need to fight against the Sirsy’s of the rock world and for the underground punk Haunted Cats, Sugar Holds, Superdark Collectives, 100 Psychic Dreams, No Fun, Architraves and dblgoers and so many more I couldn’t name them all — one person couldn’t even know them all!
So in a way this is a plea; join me in my quest to make the Capital District underground music scene as big and great as it can be. Especially now when we have so many of the building blocks in place. If you want to volunteer to write for Times Boredom, be it an opinion piece about the local band you love, a review of a great local album you just heard, or a sarcastic article making fun of you own band send us an e-mail today, we’re not picky! And as silly as we are and sometimes unintentionally/INTENTIONALLY mean, if we hurt anyone’s feelings we take it down. We just want to have fun and bring all the amateurs together to create something much better than it otherwise would be, so you don’t need any special training or experience to be one of us. Just a desire to join with us to promote and let everyone know about all the great music that’s going on out there.
Because otherwise it’s just me. And I’m already way too old for this shit, and only gettin fatter and lazier.
As soon as opening track ‘Billy Morris’ takes off you know exactly what you’re in for; quirky indie pop that makes you nostalgic for those late 90s/early 2000s obscure power pop and lo-fi label albums you were obsessed with but no one else seemed to be… And as expectedly unexpected in the lo-fi pop genre, Sing More Songs About Failed Utopias goes on a non-linear journey from that k records naive international pop sound straight through to the more recent experimental college pop like Alex G. Brilliant yet entirely unassuming lo-fi pop gems sparkle so brightly you almost cry when the harmonies are off key or there’s so many over the top saccharine sweet instruments added you know this will never be on the radio or most likely, anywhere other than a sad sad site like Times Boredom.
The ‘House of Tomorrow’ band is made up of some of the usual suspects of local musicians and scenesters; Kim Tateo (from Machine Revival), Brady Potts, Connor Amrbruster (an accomplished up and coming solo performer in their own right), Dan Prockup, and our good Superdark buddy (and good sport) Christopher Brown. It’s not clear who plays what, but knowing something about these kids most of them are pretty good at just about anything they pick up. And if there’s something else familiar about these kids that you just can’t put your finger on, you may have seen them (esp lead Nathan Meltz) in previous groups ‘The Machine that Wouldn’t Die’ and ‘Machine Revival’, or other similarly named quirky pop projects that have been playing around the Capital District for a number of years now.
The House of Tomorrow (in clever playing card form)
But let’s get less clever and do a more descriptive dive into the weeds if we must… must we? We must
Track 2 ‘Zion’ is to put it bluntly a brilliantly crafted pop gem. Like better than Sufjan Stevens. We hope it’s been submitted to college radio stations (if not take note here guys; this could be bigger than Alex G. Seriously). Though also to be blunt members of the Church of Latter Day Saints may very well not appreciate its rather flippantly wry portrayal of its… free loving founder….
And the standout track by far is #3, Themyscira. That off kilter (possibly off key; I can’t tell because I don’t have perfect pitch but I do have perfect OCD for an unbearably catchy hook) harmony on ‘reTURN to us’ could quite literally make Mr. Meltz a number one artist based on that note alone. And it stays with you after the album is over, and it will make you want to listen to the whole ep again. And then it will haunt you until you listen to it so much that you don’t know why it calls you in the middle of the night but you MUST listen to that cute little line about how Diana should ‘reTURN to us and leave the world of dicks behind’… you get the point. It’s fuckin catchy.
And if that weren’t enough, there’s the the surprise ‘Planet of the Apes-Man’ where I hope (I hope I hope) they’re exhibiting the influence of listening to way too much of the lates sixties/early seventies Kinks concept albums… it really does have that (forgive me if I’m repeating myself) naive underground pop music base that comes from groups like the Kinks that completely moved on from what made them famous yet delighted a loyal and changing fan base, in a way that I’d really like to think of Nathan Meltz and um, House of.. hm sounds like either they are a cult like the Polyphonic Spree or they’re making fun of a cult group like them — again let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say it’s mockery. But all in good fun!
But… it’s not all clever indie transcendence… Not all of the melodies are as fantastically catchy as Themyscira. And perhaps it should be pointed out that if you like your lo-fi indie a little more punky or hard edged this isn’t a record for you, the only edges are the interesting twists taken with pop hooks and ‘fa fa fa fa’s’. But it’s definitely worth a listen, and it portends potentially great things in the future provided mssrs Meltz and co. keep it up and fight the good indie pop fight… we’re certainly looking forward to hearing more and love what has developed from the early days of the Machine that Wouldn’t Die to this terrific new incarnation of Nathan Meltz and the House of Tomorrow!
Times Boredom 