Alkaline Trio / One Man Army Alkaline Trio: * Sounds like: One of my favorite bands died and some high school rejects tried to recreate their brilliance, but failed.
One Man Army: **1/2 Sounds like: Social Distortion with a head cold.
BYO Split Series Volume V (BYO Records)
There are two ways a band can go: Either they start out amazing and fail to recreate that quality on future releases or they have a rough start and eventually make it or break it. Alkaline Trio went the first route.
Their debut release, "Goddamnit," was an incredibly crafted piece of alcohol-infused punk rock brilliance. Their subsequent releases "Maybe I'll Catch Fire," "Alkaline Trio" and "From Here to Infirmary" were also brilliant, but something about "Goddamnit" struck a chord (or in the case of most songs, three chords) in the broken hearts of every slightly depressed teenager in America.
Sadly (so sad, in fact, it almost warrants a funeral), Alkaline Trio has lost that spark. Last summer's "Good Mourning" was pop-punk for MTV masses that was not actually embraced by the MTV masses due to a serious obsession with Satan and inverted crosses. And now, this poor band has released six new songs that strike no chords at all.
On their split with punkers One Many Army, Alkaline Trio offers tired songs just don't contain the furor of their previous work. Their cover of punk rock legends the Damned's "Blackout" is a decent rendition, but probably should have just been left on the dusty shelves of washed up punks where it belongs.
Luckily, One Man Army's half of the split is remarkably better. With fast rhythms and unique vocals, One Man Army presents six pretty rockin' songs. The highlight of their half is "All the Way," which almost sounds like their hit "Last Word Spoken."
Alkaline Trio should probably break up to save themselves the future embarrassment of releasing albums that their older fans just want to hurl across the room in frustration. One Man Army should probably do all that they can to grab Alkaline Trio's fleeing fans because their career may be going the other route - from being relatively unknown to a solid band who shows up the band they were opening for last summer.
Brandtson ***1/2
"Send Us a Signal" (The Militia Group) Release Date: June 15
It's difficult to determine exactly who Brandtson sounds like on their new album, "Send Us a Signal." You could, of course, say they sound like a slightly more mature version of themselves, but it's more fun to draw comparisons with groups like AFI, Jimmy Eat World and Jets to Brazil.
"Send Us a Signal," Brandtson's first release on their new label The Militia Group, who they recently signed with after a split from previous label Deep Elm Records, evokes the pleading vocals of AFI's Davey Havok on some songs and the emotional tonality of Jimmy Eat World's Jim Adkins on others. Brandtson's driving melodies hold a reserved place among pre-emo rockers like Braid, Jawbreaker and Blake Schwatzenbach's post-Jawbreaker project Jets to Brazil.
Brandtson has released six albums since "Letterbox" in 1998, and their pairing with The Militia Group has not really yielded a new sound so much as a new image. Whereas Deep Elm's bands have all been branded with the now insulting emo label, The Militia Group does not carry this rather unfortunate stigma. Deep Elm bands like Brandtson perfected the throbbing emotional rock that has now been termed emo with bands like Brand New and the Get Up Kids, however fans of these bands would do well to recognize where today's emo came from. With "Send Us a Signal" Brandtson proves they can still make emotional rock without the stigma, and they can do it a hell of a lot better than wimps like Dashboard Confessional's Chris Carraba.
"Send Us a Signal" offers 12 tracks - 11 new tracks and a reinterpretation of "Blindspot," arguably the best song off "Letterbox." All the songs on the album are beautifully crafted tracks with affecting vocals delicately interlaced with pulsing melodies. Brandtson has been mistakenly written off as both an emo band and a Christian rock band, but their brand of power-pop indie rock transcends these labels. Hopefully with the driving push of a new record label and a solid new album, Brandtson will finally get the recognition they deserve.
mellowdrone 3/4 stars
"go get 'em tiger" (Los Feliz Records) Sounds like: A soft, mellow drone ... must be where they got the name.
The world is filled with indie-rock bands who all believe their brand of melodic songwriting is worth a moment on the lips of pretentious indie scene-sters. The band mellowdrone (yes, that would be a lowercase "m") certainly does offer a rather familiar sound, however moments on their most recent EP, "go get 'em tiger" (again with the lowercase), evoke the sounds of low-key '90s alt-rock. "I'm too young" offers a melody that is strikingly reminiscent of U2's "With or Without You," and indeed much of the music reminds one of '90s bands we used to cry to, but have since forsaken with the rise of indie rock.
This is not to say, however, that mellowdrone is merely copying existing songs; their hollow tones and yearning vocals contain a unique sound all their own. The slow, pulsing rhythms are not really the type of music you listen to for a pick-me-up, but rather, in the tradition of bands like Death Cab for Cutie and Coldplay, take the listener to a state of emotional awareness where you can't decide whether to sink or swim. Instead of determining whether you should feel depressed or uplifted, it is simply easier to float through this music, appreciating its variation in a sea of music that sometimes all feels pretty much the same.
mellowdrone will be playing the Black Cat on May 31 with the Fire Theft and the Secret Machines. For more information, visit www.blackcatdc.com.
