Crash the Calm-A Town Named Nowhere (2021)

Why I like it:

A little peek behind the curtain, I typically like to sit with an album for a bit, before I decide on doing a write up. There's just so many great albums out there that I like to make sure it's worth the time and effort you know. Also your thoughts and feelings can change over time and after multiple listens, for better or for worse.

I am deciding to forgo this rule I have for myself in this case. From just a week with A Town Named Nowhere, after reading this article from Brooklyn Vegan, I was compelled. This is because Crash the Calm has honestly blown my frikin mind with this body of work! 

To get into this body of work a bit more, A Town Named Nowhere came out in a series of 3 EPs, or 3 volumes if you will. The setting of A Town Named Nowhere is the Dust Bowl event from the 1930s. Here's the synopses: "January 29th, 1930...St. Catherine’s Church, located in Nowhere burned to the ground. The candle used to illuminate the choir’s sheet music fell over, resulting in one fatality and the death of a town."

So now that you get the atmosphere that they have set, let's get into the actual music. It's part progressive post-hardcore and part art rock (in the words of Andrew Sacher from Brooklyn Vegan). It goes so well with the theme of these EPs, dark and heavy. The baritone vocals feel like an additional instrument that add to the whole experience. Think the atmosphere of Thrice, the instrumentals of Brand New, and the concept of Armor for Sleep's What to do When You are Dead. 

I've been down a rabbit hole of Crash the Calm's website and documentaries of the creation of these EPs (links below). The more I have read, the more I've been connecting with it and falling in love. Can't wait for their game to come out too! Yes they are making a frikin game too. 

Ok have I gushed enough to convince you check this out yet? While you decide I am going to spin A Town Named Nowhere another time. 

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Highlighted songs and lyrics:

My Nowhere- "The dust in the sky is getting thicker again/Soon it will smother us all"

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Similar bands to check out:

Gates, Koyo, Stand Still, Household

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Reviews and links to check out:

Atownnamednowhere.com- The band's website

The Songwriters Speakeasy Podcast- Interview

The Making of A Town Named Nowhere- Band's documentation of creating the album

Live show at a the Oddity Bar

*I could not find anything live from their new material, yet

Tilly's Mixtape Volume 4!

 

(Frontside)

(Backside)

Here we are folks, volume 4 of my mixtape series! I've been very much enjoying experimenting with these and decided to try something new, again, for this go round. You may first notice that the pictures are not my typical hand drawn ones (at least for the frontside). Thought I would go for an image, that fit the humor, then do editing on MS Paint. I know, really technical skills here. 

For the theme, I took inspiration from a podcast called High Fives Punk Rock Podcast. They also like to create mixtapes but in podcast form. Really great content! In episode 74 they went with "clever titles that got us interested in checking a song, album or band out." I had a bunch in songs that came to mind with this theme and decided to curate my own mixtape :) 

In this post I will explain each song title briefly as to why it peeked my interest to check out the song, then usually the band as well. PS-bonus points if you can find my error in one of the pictures (I decided to leave it in for fun).

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1. OK Cool - Five Finger Exploding Heart Technique: Kill Bill 1 + 2 are some of my favorite movies ever. The five finger exploding heart technique is also one of the most badass moves to add to a show. 

2. Palette Knife - Studio Ghibli Reference: Studio Ghibli is one of favorite anime studios ever. The references in this song make me so happy!

3. Posture & the Grizzly - Jordan Michael’s Space Jam: Space Jam is great but what really got me was the switching around of the Michael Jordan's name. Yes, I am easy to entertain.

4. By Surprise - Daggermouth is Playing at My House: Loving the Daggermouth (a punk band from my province) reference here.

5. Daggermouth - You Can’t Soar Like an Eagle, When you Hang Out with Turkeys: Daggermouth also have fantastic song titles!

6. Cliffdiver- The Water Temple Is Filled With My Tears and Now I Am Drowning: Typical emo style of song title and I am very here for it. The Zelda reference is a cherry on top.

7. Damper - Showed Up Too Late for the Emo Revival: Another emo band that are self-deprecating themselves in a very clever way, at least in my opinion. I think other emo fans would count Damper as 5th wave emo? 

8. Pet Symmetry - Salad Daze (Seein’ Cred): Pet Symmetry are band that thrive off unique and punny song and albums titles. Salas Daze I like because it's a spin off Mac DeMarco's song "Salad Days" (I think) which is song I also like!

9. Sandboxing - Mambos No. 1-4: Who did listen to Mambos No. 5 back in the day? Ever wonder what 1-4 could sound like? Probably not this but I like the idea!

10. Bird Bone - A.C.A.B (All Cats Are Beautiful): Again, I am easily entrained and this anacronym is wonderful.

11. Big Kids - 3,000 Hi-fives: Just the thought of doing 3,000 Hi-fives makes me happy. Wouldn't the world be happier if we all committed to doing more of them? I really need to up my hi-five game.

12. Moneen - Accidents Are on Purpose: This song is part of an EP Moneen and Alexisonfire that consist of covers they do of each other's work. They also changed the song titles of what they were covering. A great idea that I think more bands should do!

13. Motion Sickness - Doom Girl: Oh look, Motion Sickness did this for The Dirty Nil's song "Doom Boy". Yes this was intentionally added after the Moneen song. 

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Links to the mixtape:

YouTube

Spotify

AIRFLIP-Red (2021)

 

Why I like it:

AIRFLIP is a pop-punk band from Osaka Japan that take influences from pop-punk legends of the early 2000s. That would include the likes of New Found Glory, Blink-182, and Sum 41. I'm a pretty simple person when it comes to pop-punk, if it has infectious hooks and upbeat sing-along lyrics then you have yourself a new fan.

This is exactly what the album Red brings to the table. There's bops for days and parts of songs that will be stuck in my head for sometime to come. The unique quality that AIRFLIP add to their songs is the intermixing of Japanese and English lyrics, usually within the same song. Satoshi, the lead singer, said he will use Japanese if it goes with the melody, and visa versa for English. I frikin love it! Another thing that stood out to me is the album artwork, right away it reminds me of another band that likes to name their albums after colours *cough* rhymes with sneezer. Not sure if that was the intent but for me it brought the early 2000s vibes. 

I won't pretend to understand the Japan music scene, like J-Pop, but the stuff that I'm hearing in their rock scene gets me excited! Another great rock example, that I've done a blog post on, is Band-maid. If you love pop-punk please give AIRFLIP a listen! 

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Highlighted songs and lyrics:

Mayday- "Let’s find the way/We are standing here"

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Similar bands to check out:

ENTH, Five State Drive, Good Grief, Egg Brain

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Reviews and links to check out:

Linkwraylegend.com- Interview

Gekirock-com- Review (may need to google translate for English)

Airflip.info- Band's homepage 

Live Performance

GILT-Ignore What's Missing (2020)

Why I like it:

Ok so here's the pitch that first got me into GILT- "it's like the band Brand New but you can listen to it". I don't want to get anymore into Brand New, at this time, but that quote definitely peaked my interest. I heard that quote (which I may be paraphrasing) from an interview with the DIY band called Home Is Where. Cool fact, when researching both GILT and Home is Where I discovered Tilley plays in both bands! 

Anyways, we are talking about GILT and Ignore What's Missing. Does it sound a lot like who Brandon (from Home is Where) says it does? Yep it does in all the best ways! However, there's much more to this band then sick post-hardcore instrumentals. The lyrical content is on a whole other level; discussing topics like mental health, going through loss, and gender issues. I ate it all up and was exciting to see what's to come next.

Fast forward to November of 2021 and I find out that GITL released an EP called In Windows/Through Mirrors. That's right people, I am talking about two releases from GILT here! Just stick with me, I have a good reason. So I start on the first song, called "In Window (Ignore What's Missing)" and notice that Ash is the lead singer instead of Tilley. Alright that's pretty cool, I can get on board with this. Then I go through the rest of the EP and Ash is signing on all the lead parts, really well may I add. After this I obviously need to research.

What I discovered is that the EP In Windows/Through Mirrors has two reimagined songs from the album Ignore What's Missing. Ash's vocals were used and the songs were mixed with a producer. Also, Ash was announced the lead singer! Wow it all blew my mind honestly and I got super excited for the GILT. Seeing a band go all in and do brave steps like this is what keeps me amped about the scene :)

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Highlighted songs and lyrics:

Ignore What' Missing-"I want to fix things in good repair/Ignore what’s missing, focus on what’s not there"

In Windows (Ignore What's Missing)

*The remixed version with Ash's vocals

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Similar bands to check out:

Home Is Where, Record Setter, Overo, Taking Meds

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Reviews and links to check out:

Good Noise Podcast- Interview about Ignore What's Missing 

Spinning Thoughts- Interview about the EP and band's changes

Ftpunks.com- Exclusive about In Windows, Through Mirrors

Snipfest 2021- Live set 

*Seriously watch this live performance, it blew my frikin mind!