2005-04-27 - 01:08

Why is it easier to write about things I hate?

So, my sister and I don’t really have the same taste in music. She likes Usher, I like Bury Your Dead. She likes Maroon 5 and for some reason they make me want to jam a pencil in my ear. I know she’s only so-so on UnderOATH, Vendetta Red and Funeral for a Friend. This only really matters because I live with my sister and it makes those moments when we’re both home and listening to music a possible clash of the wills. Sure, we both understand volume control and the apartment does have walls so its usually a non-issue. But, we’re both social creatures and cranking a CD with your door shut or sitting in the living room with headphones on are pretty antisocial things to do. When my sister came in the kitchen where I was listening to Wakefield’s Which Side are You On? on an endless loop and said, “So, who’s this?” As opposed to the typical “What is that?!” It was a very special moment. The middle ground isn’t so sparsely vegetated now. We have Wakefield.

It wouldn’t be an understatement to say I love this CD. I love the melodies. I love the harmonies. I love the time signature shift between chorus and verse in C’mon Baby. Even the rap in the middle of that track doesn’t bother me. And, the lyrics. A little hopeful, a little bitter, fucking fantastic. “If you didn’t want me to know, you sure didn’t try to hide it,” from Asleep on Broken Teeth. I can relate. Or, “Walk with me...to the corner of what could be.” From Take Off which catches me off guard every time. I’m amazed by the structure of the whole song. I like the juxtaposition of “taking off” with “getting involved,” which in my mind usually means getting tied down. They put together a strong metaphor with a catchy melody and a good beat. I love it. Love it. Love it. Love it.

Okay, enough gushing. This disc is thirteen polished tracks in which you can hear influences from The Cars and The Beatles, among others. I hear Clean 1145, with its simple guitar and layered vocals and I think, “I love Sgt. Pepper, too.” This CD has a classic rock feel to it, except its cynical. Old School drug into the new century by its heels. No “I want to hold your hand.” Nonsense. Although, there is “She’s so contagious everyone that she meets just can’t stop shaking,” from Girl with the Beat, which makes me want to get up and shake it.

But, my favorite song on this CD is New Game with its heavy guitars and its samples of G.W. talking about the war coalition. Its well put-together, beginning with a drum lead-in that’s almost sinister. Brilliant.

The CD moves at a pretty fast clip, but when it does slow down its poignant and touching. Around hits me hard with its announcement, “When you hit the pavement, I don’t want to be around.” Its almost disorienting after the buoyancy of the preceding two tracks.

You can listen to a few of the tracks myspace.com or you can check them out on their own website. I love this CD. It rocks. Yes.

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Artificial Sound for the Artificial World: Which Side Are You On?--Wakefield

Still more noir than you are.