Graubard..........THE EPOCH IS NOW

The first time I heard about the Epoch was at a show last summer. I was at the front with my sister Nora, who is really good at subtly pushing through crowds because she is very tall and aggressive and also a misandrist, when some asshole’s attempt at spontaneous crowd-surfing culminated in him kicking me in the face, knocking my glasses to the floor. Nora handles emergency situations like a champion and therefore immediately screamed, “GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HERE EVERYONE OR I WILL FUCKING PUNCH YOU” and snatched my glasses from the floor before they could get trampled. As I put my glasses back on and my eyes refocused, I noticed a group of people dancing next to the stage. They were radiant punk kids, grinning and jumping, a mass of entangled limbs. I nudged a boy standing next to me and asked him, almost breathlessly, who they were. He was kind of a d-bag and scoffed before telling me that they were the Epoch. He said it like it was italicized. I thought the name sounded dumb, and also maybe that they were a cult? But if they were a cult, they were a very hip cult, which I’ve never heard of before but could probably happen.

In 2007 a group of the coolest weirdo art teens, childhood friends from Brooklyn, formed a band called The Mighty Handful. They wanted to make DIY music fun and silly and accessible, with shows that felt more like slumber parties with homemade confetti and lots of audience participation. Eight years later, they were performing, with a few added members, at Lincoln Center. The Mighty Handful has long since disintegrated. Now they are the Epoch, a collective of musicians and artists, and, as they often repeat, the Epoch is now. The Epoch is officially made up of ten projects and one official photographer, but everyone plays with everyone else. They are dedicated to the idea that punk isn’t just about music or aesthetics. Punk is a lifestyle, a dedication to inclusivity and the constant questioning of our social structures and norms. Punk is about doing the things that make you feel okay and having the courage to find out what those things are; it’s about fiercely loving what you love and feeling like a part of something. The Epoch makes some screamy-yelly-moshy punk music, which is excellent, but most of the music they make is punk in another sense of the word. It makes me feel like my stomach is disintegrating, like everything is beyond fucked but will maybe eventually be okay, like there are a million different ways to look at things. They make music (and art and poetry) that empowers people. It makes me want to tell everyone I love just how much I love them, to talk about my most secret feelings and stupidest ideas, to make my own music. When my friend saw Told Slant he told me that half of the audience was crying, and everyone was screaming along. I think that DIY is the most important thing happening in music right now. It’s broadening the idea of what is okay to talk about, to make music about, to feel.

DIY basically means just going out and making music, or whatever it is you’re trying to make, regardless of whether you have a label or any money or a ton of knowledge about your instrument. The Epoch used to hand out instruments to the audience at their shows. They reject the competition inherent in the music industry. Instead of competing for shows and fame, they actively support each other’s projects and encourage anyone to make music. With the advent of Bandcamp and Tumblr and all the rest of the hip-kid-social-media, it is really easy to promote your friends’ music. Everyone in the Epoch credits the other members for their help and inspiration, links to their Bandcamp pages, and writes heartfelt reviews of their albums. If you find one band, you will undoubtedly find yourself clicking through the rest of them. Some of the projects are electronic, and some are gritty, and some are lo-fi bedroom sounding, but they all share a similar perspective: sometimes my life seems like a big bummer, but ultimately things are going to be okay. This is why kids cry at their shows. Everyone feels like that sometimes, (or at least, I feel like that a lot of the time) and it is so affirming to hear people be honest about those emotions.

THE BANDS:

My first favorite Epoch band was Sharpless. Jack Greenleaf makes manic electronica with cloyingly sweet, painfully sad vocals. It makes me feel kind of uncomfortable and unsure of whether or not to dance really hard or lie in bed with the lights out. My favorite song is “Summer 2012.”

I think that yours are the only ears is a really sweet name for a music project. Susannah Lee Cutler sings stripped down folk songs. She looks like a folk singer from the ‘60s. “Fire in my Eyes” is really earnest and sounds like the way my brain sounds but much prettier. I think that she is probably the kind of person who is intimidating when you meet her, but it’s mostly because she’s just kind of shy, ya know? Let’s talk about Bellows for a second. Literally what the fuck? This music is objectively MAGIC. I don’t even understand anything anymore. Blue Breath made me forget that I have corporeal form. I don’t know if that’s true, but I did almost fall out of my chair twenty seconds into the first song. It feels like you are surrounded by everyone you have ever loved and they are looking at you wistfully and it is windy but also warm, and you are INSIDE OF Howl’s moving castle but also maybe you ARE Howl’s moving castle. Bellows is the brainchild of Oliver Kalb, who is maybe a wizard? Eskimeaux is arguably the most famous of the projects by the members of the Epoch. Gabrielle Smith, who plays with Frankie Cosmos (and came to Carleton last term!!!!!!!) sings about earnest life shit and sometimes gets pretty funky. They just signed to Double Double Whammy Records! Wahoo! Mostly I listen to music that I can legally download for free from Bandcamp (and Taylor Swift) because I am kind of an asshole, so it took me a couple months of reading the rave reviews for Small Wonder’s newest album, Wendy, to agree to pay the $7. IT WAS SO WORTH IT. Henry Crawford is a fucking genius. The album is about growing up, kind of about Peter Pan but not even in a corny way, which is a feat in itself. Usually when people use the word ‘lush’ to talk about music I think they’re being pretentious and annoying, but this album envelopes you with the lushest, sweetest, most sincere loveliness I can imagine. It is both expansive and specific and contains FUCKING MULTITUDES and makes me cry every time I listen to it. Also Henry Crawford is a Very Cute Boy and really loves David Bowie, which may or may not be relevant. Richard Gin is the photographer for The Epoch. He is an actual grown up and takes really cool photos that make everyone look really cool. Maxo is different, and weird, and cool. It’s electronic jazzy music that sounds like it’s from a pretty trippy video game. Max Coburn seems like a cool guy. I listen to this music when I’m doing long readings and don’t want to fall asleep or be distracted by words. My favorite song is “Drugs.” A lot of his songs have funny names, like “Sleach” and “Wuzza.” I really like Florist. Emily Sprague reminds me of this girl who I worked at a summer camp with. Her name is Mary Claire, and she has glasses and blonde hair and is really earnest about teaching little girls that they can make cool shit, and also about body hair. Fuck yeah! Florist’s songs are sweet and about her real life and her real life sounds fun. “Gabby thanks for cutting my armpit hair / now I have to cut yours to make it a fair trade.” I get that.

Lamniformes is super-listenable metal. It’s pronounced “lam-nee-forms” and is loud and angry and made by Ian Cory. It is music to scream along to and mosh to. There are many ellipses in the song titles but not in a stupid way. I like music like this. You might not. You should give it a chance, though. A lot of it is about sharks, which is cool.

Lago Lucia writes poetry! Isn’t it cool that there is a poet in the collective?! Their poetry project is called this is my moon. It’s largely on the internet. The poems are so beautiful. They are really cool and introspective, about all kinds of things, with a specific focus on gender. They will make you think about the way you perform your identity, which is a really cool and sometimes a spooky thing to think about (in my opinion). Felix Walworth has a silly voice, and I love it. Do not let yourself be deterred by the subpar album art for Told Slant’s newest album, Still Water. This album changed my life and will continue to change my life in the foreseeable future. You might not realize it at first, but this is perfect music. The song “I Am Not” talks about drinking forties by the East River in the space where the cops can’t fit their cars. I have LITERALLY drunk forties in that EXACT spot. That may not matter to you, but it makes me feel like I know Felix Walworth, like he is just a scrawnier embodiment of all of my saddest feelings, and then all of my most hopeful feelings. MUSIC IS SO COOL WHEN IT FEELS SO PERSONAL AHH. The Epoch is modeling a really important lifestyle, one in which they love and support each other in carving out a part of the world that makes sense to them. It makes me feel like I can do that too, which is a really nice feeling and one that I seriously recommend. Punk isn’t dead. DIY isn’t dead. All you have to do is go out and look for it!