September 20th, 2011 1:00am
That’s Just Me
It seems like we're only starting to come out of a phase of indie music dominated by excessive use of reverb, so it's actually surprising to hear a band play around with those tricks and come up with something that sounds fresh. "My Christ," one of the best and most tuneful tracks from Gauntlet Hair's debut album, essentially sounds like a late 80s sort of INXS/Tears for Fears type song that has been pushed to a severe extreme without losing its shape and basic appeal. The distortions here don't blur the composition – it's rather sharp and dynamic – but they do sharpen up the treble and exaggerate the impact of the drumming. I get the feeling that a lot of people are going to sleep on this record, which is unfortunate: These guys are figuring out some interesting new angles on late 80s arena rock.
2 Responses.
9/20/11 7:28 am
If that isn’t EXACTLY what that is. Let me put on my ‘jazz shoes” and apply my styling mousse.Teens…I don’t envy them.
10/25/11 1:59 pm
I suppose not being able to decipher a single lyric is beside the point?
…said the guy who heard the song on AOL and searched on “Gauntlet Hair” and “My Christ” to find this page (and little else even this informative) but still can’t find a clue for how people devalue lyrics so. (Nor find even a quote of the lyrics.) Especially when one considers, as another blogger I found put it about Gauntlet Hair (and it’s true about many other bands): “The only things that seem to change in the formula are the lyrics and the samples”. In that case, it doesn’t seem worth bothering with listening to more than one song by the band if you can’t get some lyric value to distinguish one from the next.