Sunday, June 28, 2015

The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer


            Few acts are as synonymous with the idea of insanity as The Dillinger Escape Plan. I remember hearing a story in high school from an acquaintance that had just seen them live, claiming that lead singer Greg Puciato had literally run across the room on the heads of the crowd, and as more and more of my friends became fans of them, further wild accounts of this band’s prowess and madness made it into my ears. Despite being a big fan of other technical acts such as Norma Jean and Between the Buried & Me, I had never found my way into any of Dillinger’s music, until my friend and drummer for Hiss the Villain (who all but worships Bill Rymer) insisted I check out their newest release, One of Us Is the Killer, which quickly proved to me just how insane this act can be.
            Despite being credited with creating the genre of mathcore,[1] a style over which they certainly hold mastery, The Dillinger Escape Plan is far more diverse in their sound than that label suggests. While writing One of Us is the Killer, the band's intention was to "consciously...push ourselves into uncomfortable territory rhythmically,"[2] and with that in mind, they manage to intermingle jazz and salsa rhythms with the speed picking and chugs that define the mathcore feel, giving a refreshing take on a sound that has already been beaten to death. Drummer Bill Rymer easily earns his accolades, loading syncopated hits and polyrhythms into every song, creating both percussive pipebombs and tiny ear-catching firecrackers. Similarly, guitarist and primary composer Ben Weinman moves so quickly up and down his neck that his hands must be bleeding. He layers intricate lines and full chords to fill out the treble zone, while Liam Wilson dominates the low-end with his roaring bass, absolutely ripping up the intro to "Crossburner" with his distorted tones. And if the heaviness isn’t enough, The Dillinger Escape Plan even has the audacity to add a horn section and soundscapes to their varied metal, further diversifying their brand of chaos.


            By far, Dillinger’s sound on this record is loaded with intensity and technicality, but as is too often the norm, the extreme competence of the musicians sometimes causes the music to stray into the territory of noise. Although a lot of their polyrhythms are aesthetically pleasing, portions of songs like “Hero of the Soviet Union” and “When I Lost MyBet” are so rapid-fire and syncopated that the CD might as well be skipping. Similarly, the riff that makes up the entirety of “CH 375 268 277 ARS” is interesting, but so repetitive and unresolved in any way that it alienates the listener more than it draws him in. Although I respect every risk that The Dillinger Escape Plan takes on One of Us is the Killer (even the abuse of odd accent cymbals as well as a xylophone), I’d be lying if I said there aren’t a few moments where I am totally lost by their thought-driven composition. 
            Despite some of the more soulless sections of song, The Dillinger Escape Plan gets it right way more often than wrong, and the best example of these four completely dominating is in the title track, “One of Us is the Killer.” Sliding into existence with an almost-inaudible arrangement, Puciato sings in a high falsetto, winding his melody between Rymer's whispering cymbals until the chorus goes off like a nailbomb. Although Dillinger adds their standard flair with polyrhythmic hits in the chorus and an atonal 21/8(!!!) bridge, the overall structure of the song is simple and palatable, causing their insanely technical choices accent the tune rather than drive it. Furthermore, they create an emotional space that allows Puciato to simply go off, his vocals running the gamut of sound from gentle high notes to throaty screams and beyond as he contemplates the binary nature of unhealthy relationships.[3] With "One of Us is the Killer," The Dillinger Escape Plan finds the perfect balance in loud/soft dynamics and simple/complex riffing, using moderation in all senses to produce an excellent and intricate tune.


            From the opening salvo of the album, it is quite obvious just how good the musicians in The Dillinger Escape Plan are, but in my opinion, no member is more interesting in his contributions than Greg Puciato. There is a sheer, honest intensity that bleeds from his voice in every take, a true connection between emotion and diction. His vocal performances stem from true outbursts of feeling, which are sometimes so strong or violent that the very microphone he is recording with gets mangled in the process.[4] This experience of truly exploding during vocal takes is one that Puciato describes as "fucking therapeutic,"[5] as it allows him to come to terms with the subject matter of his songs. In an interview with Chad Bowar, Puciato remarks that "if you're in the studio screaming about something, you should relate to it,"[6] and indeed, Greg embodies the visceral reactions inherent in his emotions, channeling them through his voice to make the vocals on One of Us is the Killer so real, he might as well be screaming in your backseat.
            As with the sound of his vocals, Greg Puciato's process for writing the lyrics those sounds will encapsulate is just as driven and inspired. Unlike most vocalists, Puciato waits until right before recording to pen the lyrics, sketching "blurts" and "blobs" until he realizes the direction the song must take. As he puts it, "the reason you create art is to get something out of you or learn something about yourself that helps you move past something or grow in some way," and by writing the lyrics to the entire record in a short amount of time, he is able to maintain a "consistency and honesty" in capturing a certain moment of his life.[7]
            Of course, this hyperfocus placed on creation of the lyrics over a short time span leaves little room for intricacy to enter the writing. While some of Greg's ideas slip into poetics, such as the lines "Drag the knife across the skin / tempted to succumb / carving fervor into flesh / holy we've become" in "Understanding Decay,"[8] the rush in which most of the writing happens leaves clichés littered throughout and much of the rest as blatant statements. Indeed, the words to the chorus of "Nothing's Funny" are so simple they come off as absolute drivel: "Eventually the jokes aren't free and nothing's ever fun and nothing's funny."[9] However, knowing that Greg's writing process is focused on capturing the true emotion in the words and presenting it brutally and uncut, the relative unimagination of the lyrics is completely forgivable. Furthermore, as hackneyed as the phrase "you are the scum of the earth" may be, I simply cannot tire of hearing Greg rip those words from the bottom of his lungs.[10]


            As Ben Weinman aptly puts it, "There is no specific Dillinger way - there's no right or wrong way of doing things. [We] just make it work."[11] On One of Us is the Killer, The Dillinger Escape Plan pushes the envelope in countless ways, but more importantly, pushes themselves into spaces they've never explored themselves. Regardless of any shortcomings, this band worked their asses off in making One of Us is the Killer into a unique experience, which alone is something amazing to see and even more amazing to hear. After spinning this record until it started skipping and then some, I can truly say that I've never heard anything like The Dillinger Escape Plan, but I'm very grateful that I did. It is a record fuming with anger and energy and enthusiasm, extremely intricate, extremely diversified, and yet extremely listenable, and I have no doubt I will be returning for more.


Tunes to Check Out:
1) One of Us is the Killer
2) Crossburner
3) Nothing's Funny





Sunday, June 21, 2015

Less Than Jake - Borders & Boundaries


            I have a long history with ska, and usually encounter no trouble enjoying the acts that perform it, but for whatever reason, Less Than Jake and I have never truly gelled. Through all of high school and college, LTJ records found their way into my hands, and I even got to see them open for Goldfinger in 2008. But they never impressed me, or even totally made sense to me. Even though they had everything a good ska act needed, and are celebrated as one of the great third-wave powerhouses, I have just never understood their music, and have never found them to be anything more than alright.
            In pondering this strange disconnect, I asked a good friend to recommend an album to reintroduce me, as he is both a huge fan and pretty knowledgeable in all things LTJ. After some careful thought, he steered me towards a copy of Borders & Boundaries, asserting that this was the best record to show me how capable this act could be. Trusting in his wisdom, I popped Borders & Boundaries into my car's CD player, and although I am still not enamored, it has certainly provided me with a new appreciation for this beloved third wave act.
            If Less Than Jake is known for anything, it is for energetic performances, and Borders & Boundaries is completely stuffed with energy. Vinnie Fiorello smashes his drum kit about in thundering slash beats, combining syncopated hits with Roger Lima's jazzy basslines. Chris Demakes' guitar is crunchy with overdrive, but his crisp tone and full chords fill out what little space the rhythm section doesn't have covered. Roger and Chris trade off vocal duties, sometimes mid-song, creating dynamic and interesting melodies to counterpoint the horn section, making Borders & Boundaries loaded with tight and lively performances and a damn fun listen from start to finish.


            Between surprisingly tight production values and driving composition, Borders & Boundaries makes for an airtight listening experience, but as one spin will tell you, it is far more a punk record than a ska one, a fact acknowledged by the band in a 2011 interview.[1] The staple elements of a traditional ska sound are rather sparse on this record; Chris rarely relies on upstroke chords and almost never turns off his distortion, and although horn players Buddy Schaub, Pete Anna, and Derron Nuhfer are full-time members of the band, their contributions only appear on half of the songs, leaving the other half to the trio of the rhythm section.
            The underdeployment or lacking contributions of the horn section in Less Than Jake has always been a source of contention for me, and it does feel like there is some unexplored melody space on this record. However, the trio of Chris, Vinnie and Roger plays as an extremely tight unit on Borders & Boundaries; their vigorous and youthful performances really drive the whole sound of the record, and as hard as it is for me to confess, they often don’t need all the horns (and Buddy admits just as much in an interview shortly after Pete Anna left)[2]. Their enmeshed playing really exudes a meaningful energy that communicates a ton all its simplicity, providing a thorough foundation upon which the horns can easily be added as ornamental pieces.


            As far as instrumentation goes, Borders & Boundaries is exciting, detailed, and definitively pop-punk, and the lyrics for the most part follow a similar vein. Most of Vinnie Fiorello’s writing is straightforward, rarely edging into poetics, which perfectly fits their style of music. However, the band has taken the time to weave an overlying theme into most of their songs, specifically that of the effects of time passing. Many of the songs take on a nostalgic feel, remembering old friends from the past like in “Mr. Chevy Celebrity” or directly invoking memories in “Suburban Myth” with lines like “I’ll show you where I lost my job / and where I got chased by the cops.”[3] But rather than wallow in the past, LTJ also takes a look at the future as it approaches; “Pete Jackson is Getting Married” analyzes the oncoming rush of adulthood in an exciting form, while “Last Hour of the Last Day of Work” dreads that same idea. Although simple, Less Than Jake completely conquers their lyrical theme of the passage of time, touching on both past and future incarnations of themselves without fixating on them.
            To my surprise (and more than a little chagrin), Borders & Boundaries is actually loaded with songs that I can’t stop spinning, but no two tunes receive more airplay from me than “Last Hour of the Last Day of Work” and “Is This Thing On?” On Fat Wreck's website, the album is described as "a display of significant growth for the band," and indeed, both of these songs present a vulnerable side of the band that I had never heard before[4]. In each tune, Chris’ emotive vocals deal with insecurity in and suspicion of the modern world, exploring how easily it is to get swept up in the surge of the future. The lyrical anxieties in each tune are reflected by the instrumentation which, while staying in the pop-punk field the band has pioneered, utilizes major rises and minor falls in the chord progressions that reflect and solidify the terror in Chris’ voice and Vinnie’s lyrics.


            With messages like "you can't second guess how to live your life,"[5] both “Is This Thing On?” and “Last Hour of the Last Day of Work” step away from the usual LTJ “gimmicky songs about our friends" feel (of which there is no shortage on Borders and Boundaries) and actually open up to the listener. This open exposure is something I did not think Less Than Jake was capable of, and knowing that they can write songs with true meaning such as these has definitely allowed me to appreciate them like never before.


            Although in no way a mind-blowing experience, Borders & Boundaries is a solid record in every way it needs to be: the music is rocking, the melodies are catchy, and even the mistakes still exude fun. It is, as Chris calls it, a record loaded with "staples" that LTJ is "still proud of to this day," and I completely understand why it is held in such high regard by both fans and the band.[6] In exploring this record, I think I have finally established the connection with Less Than Jake that I need to further explore and appreciate their catalog, to experience the records I don’t know and rediscover the ones I used to enjoy. Borders & Boundaries has become a true gateway into LTJ for me, and I would be a liar if I said I wasn’t excited to see what lies beyond.

Tunes to Check Out:
1) The Last Hour of the Last Day of Work
2) Is This Thing On?
3) Malt Liquor Tastes Better When You've Got Problems