Yer Scene Reviews

Glass Cannon by Edge Petal Burn - by Owen Schmidt

https://edgepetalburn.bandcamp.com/releases

I was recently asked to describe Edge Petal Burn’s sound by a friend of mine, and the closest I could get in one sentence was that they sounded like a less dramatic, indie rock Evanescence.

Glass Cannon is the Boston based group’s debut album under the Edge Petal Burn name, and at only ten tracks and twenty four minutes, makes for quick and dynamic listen.

The first track, “Letters”, begins with a dark and densely layered string section, over which vocalist Olivia West sings; delivering haunting lyrics while strings serve to emphasize her lyrics and delivery. The drums break in, strings cut out, and bass and guitar take their place to form a slow, unabashedly punk rock verse riff.

Glass Cannon has a dark and unmistakably punk tone, yet still manages to deliver phenomenal hooky choruses, largely due to the versatile vocal melodies and punchy guitar and bass. While listening, one can’t help but feel a slight pop punk influence on certain tracks (most notably “Potato Pie” or “Water”).

At its root, Glass Cannon is a blend of punk and indie rock with a dark, almost gothic aspect to both its sound and aesthetic. The performances on this album are stellar, especially from vocalist Olivia West and drummer Jeff Crenshaw, whose playing is as meticulous and purposeful as it is energetic. The groups originality comes from its uncompromising and detailed production, and its balance of heavy themes with catchy and interesting songwriting.

It’s sick.

Never Happy by Space Corolla - Edward Rojas

https://spacecorolla.bandcamp.com

Although I am unfamiliar with the math rock scene in San Juan, Puerto Rico, I was lucky enough to discover Space Corolla online.They released their ep, Never Happy, on March 23 and after hearing it I must have listened to it every day for two months.

Space Corolla combines the mania of The Fall of Troy and complexity of Tera Melos into well structured melodic songs that stand superior to the vast majority of content in the genre. While only lasting twenty minutes, Never Happy stands as a six song masterpiece, appealing to math instrumentation and pop-punk sensibilities. Somehow finding their own voice in the torrents of tappy/twinkly guitar music and forming accessible songs without relying on tropes within the genre, Space Corolla, I can confidently say, has created my favorite release of the year.

Noteworthy tracks:

David Bowie Whacks Postmodernism With a Crowbar

Mind Your Meds

Nightcall by Kavinsky - Francis Fitzgerald

https://kavinsky.bandcamp.com/

There is a certain charm to a poorly written, corny piece of music that no well put together composition could ever emulate. It is comparable to the headache and overall unclean feeling one experiences after eating too much candy; empty and uncomfortable but also somehow deeply satisfied. Believe it or not, junk food does exist in the realm of music and it’s everywhere. Although it’s only healthy in small doses, bad music should be appreciated for its role in our lives as bad music. On September tenth, two-thousand and ten, the world was blessed with French synth-pop artist, Kavinsky’s EP, Nightcall. The cover art was extremely intriguing to me as I love it when people try to rip off the Terminator franchise. What was even more intriguing was the first track, Nightcall. It begins with a slow but steady keyboard riff that leads to the first verse in which the vocals are heavily edited to sound like a robot. At this point in the song you are thinking that it isn’t half bad and that you could totally speed down the freeway, wearing sunglasses at night to this track. The chorus is a breathy female mumbling mysterious words about a boy that frankly don’t make much sense. After this, the cycle repeats (same lyrics too). This may not sounds exciting at all but this track and the Dustin N’Guyen remix of it from the EP are both a blast. There is a second track on the release for which there is another remix but it isn’t as fun. It’s called Pacific Coast Highway and sounds like stock music compared to Kavinsky’s grand opus, Nightcall. If you are ever dangerously close to falling asleep while driving, bump this EP and have the best or worst time of your life. Music is completely subjective and that my opinion means nothing but I ask that you at least give this a chance because there is something to be celebrated in everything.