Pope/Nouns/r∆chel////Best Buds Split EP
Rating: bad//meh//alright/nice//VERY FREAKING GOOD//Excellent
I love Pope. I have gone as far to call Pope my favorite New Orleans band, or at least at the time they released the Known Weed Smoker EP. That thing really, really messed me up, dude. I just couldn’t understand how such young talent could write such fuzzy hooks in amazing lyricism. It made me mad how good these kids are at what they do. They succeeded in taking a pile of bands that I very much love (and a plethora of sub-genres) and converting them into college-friendly sad punk rock for people into Pinkerton. Maybe it’s because the trio has been playing music since High School and the chemistry it’s just irreplaceable. Whatever.
Now, I’m good friends with these guys. I promise you I’m not being biased at all; my roommate plays in an indie-pop band that I could defenitely do without, but they are still my friends and my roomie is my best bud (not to mention i’m in a band with their bass player and the lead guitarist is filling in for my other band’s touring duties). I try to stay honest within a scene full of people I know very well could kick my ass. I don’t care.
Okay. The rambling is getting too long. I’m going to try to break this down. Nouns
When Pope confided to a bunch of us that they were releasing a split with Nouns and r∆chel I got wearily excited; I go on music forums a lot and, for the past 8 months or so, Nouns’ Still Bummed has been a trending topic among “emo revival” and garage rock enthusiasts alike.They insightful layered “skramz” intuitions onto this washed out sense of production. I bet that if Teen Suicide leaned towards showcasing how good they can be at their instruments and stopped sounding like a song off Wavvves,they’d probably be on this same boat. There’s also subtle synth leads and cool vibratos. It’s pretty tight. It’s also very fucking eerie. While Pope’s energy remains in their feedbacked craftmanship hidden in broken shoegaze and a love for The Cure, Nouns just hits you in the face with the same nostalgic value of a good Alexisonfire song. It can be strikingly different, and the idea of a split can easily turn out to be off-putting. I should also reveal that, while I really like Still Bummed, I didn’t care for Still. That’s a story for another rant.
"Mac Harris" comes across as something off their Freshman release. I liked it the moment I hit play; It shreds, it yells, and it’s fucking loud. I like loud. It revealed a lot about the band’s capabilities in a great way. It breaks itself between the screaming and the rock-out leads for a moment of quiet reflection that only adds to their songwriting skills. It blended seamlessly with "Animal", to my surprise. I guess that’s because Pope went with abrasiveness while Nouns chose delicacy. The found a good balance in between the bars of two separately-located scenes. It rocks. And speaking of “Animal”.. Pope
"Animal" is bizarre, man, or at least within the context of their recorded material. This is the most aggressive Pope release yet, and it’s honestly really good. See, in my honest opinion, when bands start out by putting amazing releases that clearly show how musically mature their members are, there isn’t much to go from there. To further elaborate, I find it more enjoyable to see how a band like Radiohead can move from shit like Pablo Honey to something so eclectic as In Rainbows or The King of Limbs. That always struck me as fantastic. Similarly, I always felt that Built to Spill hit a peak at Keep it Like a Secret, mainly because in between Ultimate Alternative Wavers and Perfect From Now On, their ease at experimenting in the midst of the changing state of “cool” music had been exhausted. Strong releases are always really tough to follow up, especially back to back. Now, I don’t know which road Pope is taking, but “Animal” is a great game-changer, and loudly explains that these guys can do much more besides being loud and hooky. They’re angry, sad, and stoned. They are planning on sticking around for a while.
"Animal"'s vocals sound a lot like Robert Smith. I know for a fact these guys fucking worship him, so it really isn't a surprise. What strikes me is how one can pull-off sounding like Robert Smith onto a riff that resembles In Utero, Slanted and Enchanted, and Isn’t Anything thrown into a blender and then spat on. It’s violent, and the vox track just kind of hangs there. It manifests upon a road to destruction paved in half-empty prozac prescriptions, self-pity, a good book, and never-ending libido. It’s just desperately cool. Cool stuff.
r∆chel
I saw r∆chel at a house party where, interestingly enough, Pope and Yelephants were playing. After drunkenly missing Pope, I figured I might as well see the middle act. I just thought r∆chel was good enough for me to enjoy myself, but not to make me want to go home and bandcamp the shit out of them. I was also wasted and I thought the singer sounded too much like Connor Oberst and that freaked me out. I like Bright Eyes and Desaparecidos a lot, but his voice is so shaky I can only hope he’s not having a stroke while using an electric toothbrush. It was a good night.
Then Matt (Pope) sent me a link on facebook directing me to rachel’s bandcamp. Damn, it was good. I listened to some of the tracks off Sorry and I was enthralled. There was a lot of Daniel Johnston in it, as well as some Unicorns, Guided By Voices, maybe some Pavement, maybe some Beat Happening and Tiger Trap. Actually, there was a lot of Pavement. “Extra Lives” remembered me of a song off the early, The Fall-sounding EP’s or possibly the dirtiest Slanted and Enchanted track. It was heartbreaking, too.
That’s why when I listened to "Placebo Love" I was beautifully appalled; the production, especially the drums and the keys, stepped up a lot, but the overall sense of dismay and horror was even more prominent. The vibrato over the already hauntingly-throbbing just made it more interesting. The riffs are embellished in cleanly-ran sadness and begging. It very much feels like these dudes are having a mental breakdown onstage. It’s also catchy. It’s a good closer.
This EP is very well-thought. It’s a rampant ride towards the minds of young musicians who may share an affinity for Motion City Soundtrack and good pizza. Maybe have a beer and talk about girls until they’re all crying to Killing Joke or The Lonesome Crowded West. I liked it a lot.
Have a nice life.
Best Buds Split was released on April 22nd, 2014 on Paco Tapes
awesome review of BEST BUDS SPLIT from drone girls.
