Someone put me on the spot a few weeks ago and asked me, "Who's your favorite band?"
"Uh... ...The Replacements? ...Pavement? ...Bob Mould in his various incarnations?"
Then I got home and had a George Costanza "Jerk Store" moment, realizing what I should have said after the fact. Any guesses?
Those of you who said Dinosaur Jr. win the prize (honorable mention to those who said Titus Andronicus, but I was going for a more veteran act). I couldn't believe that, in the heat of the moment, I forgot all about J, Lou, and Murph. I went through the stats here at CoolDad Music one day, and I think that Dinosaur Jr. accounted for something like 15-20% of the posts. That may have been diluted a bit since the I Bet On Sky album cycle wound to a close, but they're still one of the biggest topics here.
I think it's the way that Dinosaur Jr. blend the sounds of classic rock and, sometimes, country with the heavier sounds of punk, noise, and hardcore. They appeal to where I was as a teenager and where I am now in terms of what I like to listen to. Just check out my "Not From The 90s" playlist on Spotify to see how much of a hold J Mascis has on my musical tastes.
Weezer are kind of soul mates to Dinosaur Jr. in blending what would normally be disparate categories into something wonderful. In the case of the LA band, the blend of hard rock and pop combined with bringing the vocals to the fore create a sound that, it turns out, has influenced countless bands releasing music in the last year or two.
On their four-song, self-titled EP released back in January, Bay Area quartet Happy Diving push all the right Dinosaur Jr. / Weezer-y buttons for me. Like every song on the record, opener "As You Were" starts with some guitar feedback or noise. Matt Berry's vocals fall somewhere between the buried whine of J Mascis and the clear as a bell yelp of Rivers Cuomo. There are power chords and octaves, and the song ends with the primordial beginnings of a guitar solo.
Single and standout track "Sincere" features Berry in a call and response of sorts with some big, plodding guitar chords as he resigns himself to "wasting my life to be sincere." This time, a beefy solo cuts through the fuzz as the song comes to a close.
The vocals get a little lower in the mix and the noise gets cranked a little louder on the last two tracks. "Complacent" features the line "But if you knew me, you'd know I'm not worth it at all" cutting through all the guitars. In a similar vein, closer "Never Been" opens with "I wish that I could say what I wanted to say, but I'll be quiet." Self-deprecating lyrics surrounded by fuzz and distortion with some guitar leads poking through just do it for me every time. What can I say?
"You know a lot about music," someone said to me the other night.
"I try to keep up, " I said, "but I always find myself going back to the same kind of thing." Happy Diving do that kind of thing pretty well. They've apparently got a full-length coming on Father / Daughter later this year; and, if it stands up to this self-titled effort, I'll be jumping on it while I wait for the next thing from J.
Happy Diving is out now, and you can stream a couple of songs over at Happy Diving's Bandcamp page.
No comments :
Post a Comment