Two Tongues - Two Tongues

Saves The Day and Say Anything are two of the alternative rock scene's most respected bands, the first almost being genre veterans whereas the second form the replacement with at the procession's head their tortured and charismatic frontman, Max Bemis. On the face of it, normal that the ladder worships his predecessor Chris Conley, talented songwriter of Saves The Day. More surprising is the friendship between those two modern times icons. It's Bemis's adoration for Conley that is at its heart. Their first collaboration dates from 2006 on the occasion of a cover album tribute to Bob Dylan released by the label Doghouse, ‘Paupers, peasants, princes and kings’. A common tour followed between both of their bands, enabling Bemis to move from the status of absolute fan to that of Conley's close friend. When the first one put forward the idea of more thorough collaboration, it wasn't long before the other one answered that "he would do it with no one else". The result has been waited more than impatiently by the scene's aficionados and regrettably it is not as we dreamt it.

This result, it's Two Tongues: Max Bemis and Chris Conley on vocals, guitar, keyboard and lyrics, Dave Soloway (ex-Saves The Day for a few weeks) on the bass and Coby Linder (Say Anything) on the drums. It's normal to expect the best with such a line-up, especially on words and vocals, Chris's high-pitched voice having remarkably proved itself once associated to Max's one, hoarse and resonant, on Say Anything's song 'Sorry dudes, my bad’ two years ago. This contrasted and tasty vocal alliance bears its best fruit on the beginning of the record. The first seconds of 'Crawl' and its booming chorus reminiscent of the ones from ‘In defense of the genre’ only suggest the best. ‘If I could make you do things’, more rock, rather approaches Saves The Day and the back-and-forth between Chris's almost feminine singing and Max's wild one offers a great rhythm to the whole. ‘Dead lizard’ is also very successful, its guitar riffs a la ‘Sound the alarm’ reminding a pop ‘The artist in the ambulance’ (Thrice).
This excellent chain of poppy and upbeat tracks is disrupted by an interlude sung by Eisley's Sherri DuPree (Max Bemis's wife-to-be and who also made the album's cover) to install a much darker atmosphere. It's not straightaway annoying, ‘Tremors’ being in the vein of ‘In defense of the genre’ 's ballads. Some will find the song insipid and its vocals too whiny, but it is yet very efficient. However, the following songs' level is way below that of the record's beginning and are unfortunately far from being memorable. The high hopes brought by the first part of the album make the second a real disappointment. Several of them are definitely boring and seriously lack energy. The cheerful ‘Come on’ certainly has rhythm but terribly repeats itself, the duo's vocals on the awkward ‘Alice’ lack enthusiasm and ‘Try not to save me’ sounds like an average Saves The Day b-side.
‘Back against the wall’ embodies all the frustration felt when listening to this record. It could and should have been one of the best of the year, the creative potential of its two phenomenous songwriters being so huge. And yet, whereas we're waiting for Bemis and Conley to show their superiority over the rest of the scene and to definitely establish themselves as today's alternative rock kings, they rather choose to serve us an oddly funk song with ugly synth sounds and a main guitar/bass riff completely dated. It's dull to death and the chorus is as empty as a circle pit at a Jonas Brothers show. We would like to shake them and ask them to be serious two minutes: you can do so much better than that, guys! The whole record is very uptempo rock, with sequences reminding sometimes The Replacements and Minutemen, sometimes Hüsker Dü and Fugazi. ‘Don’t you want to come home’ really sounds 90's rock, just like the majority of the riffs on the album being more in line with ten years ago's alt-rock than with that of today, closer to The Hold Steady than to Taking Back Sunday. Conley's voice already being on the verge of the unlistenable for those who don't appreciate his high-pitched timbre, the effects on his voice on the verses make them hardly supportable. The album's very end is even more disappointing, the last song being a weak and useless cover of the band Ween where Bemis seems totally out of place, a really bad way to end the record. The exception in this decadence is the very well-executed ‘Wowee zowee’ with its catchy power chords, its rumbling bass and its excellent chorus calling for sing-along, delicious back-and-forth between Bemis's low barkings and Conley's high whines.

So we finish the listening of this first self-titled album (the quartet maintained that Two Tongues would last more than one record) with a slight bitterness and a certain disappointment. Some elements that we were waiting for at the announcement of such a collaboration are yet here: the vocal tandem Bemis/Conley works perfectly, it's a pleasure to listen to the sharp contrast between the two singers. Whether they play the same character ('Try not to save me') or, more generally, they speak to each other as lovers ('Zowee wowee') or friends ('Silly game'), Chris's mellifluous voice and Max's powerful one go together wonderfully well. We are on the other hand sometimes surprised to hear the latter and his deep voice that we know singing narcissistic and tormended anthems recite us much more impersonal, not to say hackneyed lyrics. This is one of the most disappointing aspects of the record: whereas Say Anything and Saves The Day lyrically excel, Two Tongues content themselves with surprisingly banal lyrics. We recognize the two bands' touch on the musical level though, Conley and Soloway bringing the darker side of their band, Bemis and Linder the more raw rock of theirs. The partners had announced it, we had not to expect a mix of '...Is a real boy' and 'Through being cool' but rather " 'In defense of the genre' meets 'Sound the alarm' ". But this encounter fails on the second part of the record which is desperately short of energy and the album seems to have been made too fast, its initial release having though been set to last summer. Half of the songs would have been enough to make a very good EP that would have been way better received by the critics.
'Two Tongues' isn't for all that bad, far from it, it's a good record for itself, a solid debut for any unknown band, but a slight cold shower for all those who were hoping for a masterpiece level with its creators' reputation. "All-star bands" always end up being in the shadow of their founders' initial bands and Two Tongues won't be an exception. This album doesn't manage to draw up the quartet to an equivalent level to that of Saves The Day and Say Anything, only looking like a simple side-project in comparison with those ones. Thus, it will be no more and no less than a nice interlude to make fans wait until the new albums of the two genre's heavyweights.

3.5/5

Recommanded if you like:
Say Anything, Saves The Day, The Get Up Kids
Check also:
The Stereo, Person L, Forgive Durden

www.myspace.com/twotonguesrock
(Vagrant Records, 2009)

New Found Glory - Not without a fight

New Found Glory's history is interesting to look at. Eternal outsiders of pop-punk in the years 2000 behind Blink-182 and Green Day, the band has all the same known how to consolidate its third place with albums that become genre's classics, 'New Found Glory' (2000) and 'Sticks and stones' (2002). Whereas their popularity didn't cease growing, the next albums saw their credibility going the other way. When Green Day moves away from their peers to mix with the U2 and other Colplay and that Blink passes on, New Found Glory has the golden mean to get onto the first step of the podium but trips over it with 'Coming home', stressing more on the "pop" of "pop-punk" than its predecessors, even giving a cheesy hint to certain compositions of the record. The band quickly realizes that their "new found maturity" scares a big part of their audience off and is hardly workable live. While many already see it dead and buried, the phoenix comes back to life two years later and, to everyone's surprise, by means of the hardcore scene. A huge buzz comes with the announcement of a new EP's release (and of an album from their hardcore side-project, International Superheroes Of Hardcore) on the label Bridge Nine, home of Have Heart and consorts, more mosh than pogo to the core. Nice without being exceptional, it restores the Florida five-piece's image that gets back in shape, regains punch and begins touring with heavier bands. Thus, we have the feeling that New Found Glory had, maybe for the first time of their existence, something to prove with this sixth full-length.

'Right where we left off', the opening song, is the one "that says the most about the band today", according guitarist Chad Gilbert. The first words are quite evocative, resuming the album's title: "You can't get rid of me that easy, no / Not without a fight". New Found Glory are definitely back, a bone to pick in order to regain their place. The riff is insistent, the punch and the rhythm changes remind of 'Catalyst'. The chorus yet lacks energy and it's the more mid-tempo 'Don't let her pull you down' that really launches the album. The verses are very soft but the chorus is totally poppy hardcore, Jordan Pundik's vocals are faultlessly carried out, still just as nasal and recognizable, while Chad, Steve and Ian find their word to say in the easy yet lively back vocals against a background of jerky guitars.
The first highlight and probably the album's best track is the single 'Listen to your friends' that inevitably calls to mind the band's biggest hit, the "will-never-go-out" 'My friends over you'. 'Listen to your friends' has it all: it is simple, catchy, the chorus is easy to remember and to chant and the lyrics form a story, unusual thing with New Found Glory. It's just super-effective and the hook right before the chorus is quite simply excellent. Other tracks are perfect to bob your head while playing air guitar, like 'Truck stop blues' (that Max Bemis of Say Anything would call the "obligatory song about being on the road and missing someone") or '47' that has an undeniable instrumental quality and in which Cyrus Bolooki expends all his energy behind his drum set, giving tempo to the whole song. "I called you 46 times / And you answered on the 47th". Real 'Stick and stones' era New Found Glory. As for 'Tangled up', it distinguishes itself by the double voice on the chorus which puts new life into the singing and reminds the best moments of 'Coming home'. The inevitable guest vocals by the irresistible Paramore's Hayley Williams (Chad's girlfriend) is hardly noticeable without being informed.
If the theme of fight is omnipresent around the album (title, cover, promo pictures, video in an Ultimate Fighting cage), the lyrics' topics stay timeless and very NFG-esque: girls, friendship and broken hearts. However, whereas 'Coming home' saw the five musicians growing up, 'Not without a fight' shows them grown up. 'Heartless at best' features a greater maturity in its lyrics and originiality in its melancholic melody and the presence of an acoustic guitar. In the same way, 'This isn't you' is neither an anthem for the crowds, nor an intimist ballad, just a simple and brilliantly executed song. The soft break revives the track that ends on a superimposition of vocals.

Unfortunately, the album has some small slackenings. Although the Floridians' hardcore roots are more felt on this record, they remain concealed in short breakdowns or simple gang vocals. A little like on the 'Tip of the iceberg' EP, those more straightforward songs are lacking some consistency. 'I'll never love again' would have needed more speed with its hardcore tempo (the intro will bring the most nostalgic back to The Movielife's 'Jamestown') and Chad's screams. 'Such a mess' has a heavier rhythmic, big Four Year Strong-like riffs and a really heavy drumroll graded for the pit. The formula works without necessarily doing brilliantly, here again, something is missing, especially on the end and its breakdown a little empty. 'Reasons', somewhere between the acoustic ballad and the typical pop-punk song, lacks some energy too and surprises by its guitar solo as closure. Finally, the album's last track, 'Don't let this be the end', is weaker than the songs preceding it and only really attracts the attention at its very end, the chorus and its subdued back vocals giving way to the band's nice in unison vocals that we would we would like to see last longer.
(It is worth noting that the Japanese b-side 'I'm the fool' deserves to be downloaded.)

'Not without a fight' has the energy of 'Stick and stones' and the strong songwriting of 'Coming home' but the mix is sometimes tricky as the maturity isn't really what made the success of their first albums, for which New Found Glory try to strive with this one. This opus is more uptempo, the rhythms imposed by Chad Gilbert and Steve Klein's guitars more jerky and the songs shorter and made for being sung in unison. But there aren't enough simple and fun tracks going straight to the point like 'Listen to my friends'. The record sometimes lacks consistance, notably on the end, and won't bring the five-piece to its 'My friends over you' years' popularity.
There is no doubt that it will yet make the diversified crowds the band unites sing, from the old-school punks to the typical scene boys and girls or the hardcore kids ready to have a bone to pick in the pit. New Found Glory are certainly not virtuosos but they are able to make a stadium scream all together on their catchy and easily memorizable choruses. And in the end it is what they looked for with this "revival" album (Chad describes it as "the first record of New Found Glory's second chapter of being a band", even if we are many to rather think of 'Catalyst'), being able to rock out on stage while making their audience move, which was too often impossible with the songs of 'Coming home'. This mission is successful, this album is live-sized from end to end. It's their friend Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 who, at the production, knew how to choreograph the whole and in particular, being a bassist himself, work the bass tones.
New Found Glory don't deliver us an innovative or phenomenal record here, but an effort full of life, envy and passion for what they do. Releasing quality albums, staying close to their fans and offering one of the best live shows all styles taken together, the band deserves its popularity beyond its genre. In a period where the new neon powerpop bands in every way similar are flocking on MySpace in hundreds, better turn to safe bets. New Found Glory have always belonged to them and have this capacity to stay the same over the years without going out. They manage to revitalize themselves without losing the essence of the wild youngs they were ten years ago. As announce the ads for the album, "the indisputed heavyweight champions of pop-punk are back and ready to reclaim their crown".

3.5/5

Recommanded if you like:
The Movielife, Set Your Goals, Four Year Strong
Check also:
Broadway Calls, Bangarang!, Living With Lions

www.myspace.com/newfoundglory
(Epitaph, 2009)

Punk goes pop volume two

And to think that Fearless Records was, ten years ago, At The Drive-In's label. Hard to believe when we see today's label productions. With signed bands as trivial as the post-hardcore-esque Alesana and the latest Motionless In White or ridiculously cheesy pop-punk as Every Avenue and The Maine, the Californian label uses the current trends more than they beat on originality and risk-taking. It's proved again with this compilation.
The 'Punk goes...' series had quite good vintages though, as 'Punk goes acoustic' for example that gathered on its tracklisting as great and varied names as those of Thursday, Coalesce, Strike Anywhere or Open Hand. Then followed 'Punk goes pop', 'Punk goes 80's', 'Punk goes 90's', 'Punk goes acoustic 2', 'Punk goes crunk' and this month comes out 'Punk goes pop volume two'. And the least we can say is that the simple reading of the tracklisting will push more than one away. Take fourteen upcoming bands on the pop-punk/alternative rock/post-hardcore actual scene (roughly, those whose MySpace pages are the most visited and secondarily the most polished) and ask them to cover fourteen songs that made the glorious days of the most popular radio stations in those last ten years. Once again, it's better not to trust the title of the compilation (if Breathe Carolina sound punk, Refused were the greatest R&B band in the world).

The impression that comes out while listening to the album is that it's ridiculously easy to make a cover these days. There are those who content themselves with making exactly the same song with guitars and drums like Mayday Parade with the unbearable 'When I grow up' of the Pussycat Dolls, those who add to the clear singing some easy and worth no interest screamed parts (Silverstein with One Republic's 'Apologize', A Static Lullaby with Britney Spears's 'Toxic') or even those who find judicious to growl on some Justin Timberlake (Alesana) or, her again, Britney Spears (August Burns Red). The listening of those tracks is disconcerting due to the impression we get that we could do the same without much effort.
But there's even worse. There are those which listening of the song until the end requires a steel will. As if this compilation was missing Auto-Tune, Breathe Carolina give us the pleasure to suffocate us with vocoder and terribly clumsy dance beats. If you manage to appreciate this song, you must inevitably be an absolute fan not only of the band, but also of the pain Miley Cyrus which they had the good taste of covering a hit. In the same vein, 'I kissed a girl' in an electro/screamo version by Attack Attack! is completely unlistenable and almost encourages us to apologize to Katy Perry.

Admittedly, there are those who tried to appropriate the song by making adjustments. Escape The Fate's drummer, when he justified their choice of cover, declared that they "didn't want to do something cliché, that we've already heard, like making the song faster, adding a breakdown or screaming the chorus". Hard not to think of his collegues' participations hearing this. Be that as it may, the rockstars they are chose the very sexy 'Smooth' of Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas. Certainly, the covering work is a little more careful, but it doesn't really work. The same is true for The Cab who added keyboard, vocoder and a guitar solo to Rihanna's 'Disturbia' without succeeding in convincing (the bands A Cursive Memory and above all The Sequence also attempted to take this same song and managed to it better, their versions can be listened on their respective MySpace) and for There For Tomorrow and the dance side brought to their cover of the R&B singer Omarion.
The three tracks that stand out from the crowd are those of Chiodos, A Day To Remember and Four Year Strong. The first distinguish themselves by the originality of their cover's choice ('Flagpole Sitta', Harvey Danger's 1998 hit) and the two others make their respective versions of 'Over my head' (The Fray) and 'Love song' (Sara Bareilles) sound a little in the same way, with the difference that we would like more clear vocals for the first and less for the second. The three bands make the song theirs well, Chiodos surprise by the musical freshness of their track despite Craig Owen's annoying howls on the end, A Day To Remember give a good energy to The Fray's yet honeyed chorus and Four Year Strong's usual gang vocals and double voice make 'Love song' sound like a 'Rise or die tryin' ' b-side. Bayside also shape up quite well with their version of 'Beautiful girls' and if it doesn't make us jump for joy, it's probably because of the original's creator, Sean Kingston.

At the hands of the acerbic critics that will with no doubt hit this compilation's creators, the answers will probably be centred on the fact that the album only has an entertaining purpose. Nothing serious okay, but if the bands will claim having made their covers "for fun", we will be able to reply to them that in the end we hardly find it. Quite the contrary, it's too often an ordeal for the eardrums. The majority of the songs' choices are not sensible, how to make people like a cover of a song that is initially dreadful? Aren't we subjected enough to the media hype around the global stars that are Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus to have to hear bands from our scene covering their songs? I besides thank them for inserting those names on my blog, I will probably soon have visits from Disney Channel club members. Those thongs are not even guilty pleasures, they are tracks we hear all day long and that we would like not to have to suffer from the listening anymore. What did Silverstein think covering 'Apologize', song heard a thousand times by every human being owning a television or a radio?
We yet have to expect the covers of this album stinking neon and Auto-Tune to land up as hundreds of MySpace pages' musical background from their release. It's not shameful anymore to like ultra-sugary pop served by MTV since the bands in vogue cover it to their liking. It has become a real trend for those desiring to be famous to post their hit of the moment's version online. Surefire buzz. It's however not sure that someone will remember a single one of those covers in three years.
When this passion for listening to heavy-edited R&B or pop-punk-edited dance will be done, Fearless will be forced to find something else and to turn to creative and interest-worthy projects. Me First And The Gimme Gimmes may sometimes choose to cover even worse songs, at least it's funny.

2/5

Recommanded if you like:
Forever The Sickest Kids, Cobra Starship, Brokencyde
Check also:
I Set My Friends On Fire, Watchout! There's Ghosts, Cash Cash

www.myspace.com/punkgoespop2
(Fearless Records, 2009)

Thursday - Common Existence

For many years, Thursday have been living in the shadow of a scene that it partly built. The New Jersey sextet, without necessarily being cast-off, has all the same suffered along its carrier from a certain lack of consideration. A due recognition, whatever some say about it. Thursday is neither Quicksand, nor Far but the actual alternative rock and post-hardcore scene would be far less thriving without Full Collapse and War All The Time.
This month comes out Common Existence, the band's fifth album, that chose (under the imposition of their major contract's licking) Epitaph as their new home. The disappointed ones were so many when A City By The Light Divided came out in 2006 that this album was less expected. The very clean production, the melodic work, the ambiant parts and the lack of aggressiveness of the record made Thursday lose many of their long-time admirers. A split with the Japanese screamo/post-rock band Envy released last year however restored some's hope, surprising by the verve of its songs.

So what should we wait for from this new opus, produced as its predecessor by Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, MGMT)? The first track, "Resuscitation Of A Dead Man", is, as it happens on every Thursday release, one of the most powerful of the record. It's also the first single but we are miles away from "Counting 5-4-3-2-1", way more easy-listening. The presence of Tim McIlrath (Rise Against) is hardly audible and for good reason: the furious riffs, the banging drums, far from many young bands' beatbox sound, and Geoff Rickly's vocal performance half-sung, half-screamed, sincere and desperate, are gut-wrenching. If the lyrics aren't really impressive contrary to some of the following tracks, the sound impression is so strong that we don't take much account of it.
The whole first part of the album stays in this urgency and this aggressiveness, with genuine noise blasts. "Last Call" sounds like classic Thursday, chaotic but interrupted by calm sequences to finish in an end of the world soundtrack as the band does it so well. "Friends In The Armed Forces", one of the best songs of the record, has a strong lyrical interest and deals, as its name suggests, with war. More precisely, the core of the subject is the not easy relationship of Geoff with a friend enrolled in the Iraq conflict, or how not to encourage the efforts of someone you support as a person. "Ultimately, the song is a wish for peace and wellbeing for my friends", explained the lyricist in an interview. Lyrically and musically, it's impressive. Geoff's voice rises above guitars, nervous and intrigate. This impression of distance in the vocals is always here, as if he was going away and coming back constantly. But if the singer yells more on this album, the screams are only scattered, sometimes too clean and not any part is howled like on Full Collapse. Anecdotally, "Friends In The Armed Forces" includes a vocal participation of Walter Schreifels, emblematic figure of the hardcore and post-hardcore history who formed a part of many classic bands, from Youth Of Today, Gorilla Biscuits or Quicksand to Rival Schools, and now an established producer.

The album's second part is below the first one and includes all the more experimental tracks. "Beyond The Visible Spectrum" starts with a catchy drum solo and a chord sample quickly absorbed by the guitars' fury. "Circuits Of Fever" is the airiest song and could have easily appeared on A City By The Light Divided, while "Subway Funeral" will make you think of the unreleased tracks from the live CD/DVD Kill The House Lights.
The two ballads of the record musically sound alike but yet have a very different impact. "Time's Arrow" is a trippy song to haunt spirits that gives pride of place to Andrew Everding's keyboard, where Geoff's voice resonates as if it was coming right out of a music box. "Love Has Led Us Astray", a cold and subtle ballad, is a much more interesting track given its role of superb forewarning to the burning song that closes the album.
This last track, "You Were The Cancer", is as powerful as the very first one and probably one of the most intense of the whole Thursday discography. The synth electrifies the atmosphere, Geoff's vocals carry us, insistent and frosty, soon joined by the drumroll indicating that the downpour is close. And indeed, guitars get in, booming, quickly leading to the chorus, impassioned and sharp. A little like on "Lovesong Writer", we can feel the sky becoming overcast before the storm arrives and it makes the tempest only better.
The album ends like it started, in urgency. A constant urgency that characterizes the band. But beyond the intensity of their post-hardcore hits and the perfection of their singer's vocal performances (with no doubt one of the best of the genre), Thursday test sounds, creating textures, sensations, including subtle danger signals before every chaos, taking the listener to the highest before dropping him to the ground in a rush.

Despite a small minus on the production level (we have the feeling that the sound could have been even more explosive, especially on post-break parts and on the volume of the vocals) and a slight weakening on the middle of the record, Common Existence is a solid and substantial album. Several listenings are necessary but we realize that the whole just sounds natural and progressive, without any calculations or dubious elements. The band keeps its identity managing to distance itself from its pale imitators. What separates the sextet from its descendants is this ability to evolve and explore new tones and new complexities.
Twelve years after its forming and (with one exception) still with the same line-up, Thursday keep going on their way in the middle of loneliness, chaos, war and disaster at a desperate but firm pace, alone, like isolated within the scene they largely contributed to create.

4/5

Recommanded if you like:
Thrice, Glassjaw, Alexisonfire
Check also:
Hot Cross, United Nations, Kidcrash

www.myspace.com/thursday
(Epitaph, 2009)