So. Transition: Euphonia's featured band of the month. These guys are a bit different from what I usually listen to. No allusion, no intensely metaphorical expression of emotion: They sing about plain, real things. They're not using superficial ideas to express general emotions, nor complicated lies to flesh out real scenarios. These guys quite plainly have had some thoughts about love, about music, about friendship, and they're just singing it. As "A Letter From Dallas" says, "I'm not afraid of being alone." Check them out in the Featured Band portion of our site--it's not often I get to match songs to motivations, and it really influenced me in Transition's favour, knowing where they're coming from.
Get There should appeal heavily to the alternative crowd that shies away from emo. While the album has its share of frustration and dissatisfaction and ex-girlfriendosity-that-needs-to-be-worked-out, they're mostly good, rockin' songs. I mention this because their guitar reminds me of early Armor For Sleep, but people nowadays have AfS stapled to emo in their heads. No, even with "Give and Take," which is slower, more ballad-like, and has some female accompanying vocals reminiscent of Straylight Run, the band plays more like the Ataris than they do any real emo band. They're accessible, they've got fine choruses, nice vocals of the currently trendy pop-punk type, very nice instrumentals in some places (as I mentioned before, they're reminiscent of the faster AfS:DTMB stuff, and coming from me, that's a very favourable comparison). I predict that the crowd will go wild for these guys. They've definitely got the touch, and I can see the fans going wild over nice songs like "Winter." That track, and a few others like "Down at the Harbor" and title track "Get There," are really prime examples of the album's vocal style--dig those strangely California-surfer-drawl-sounding (and they're from Pittsburgh? Sign of the apocalypse) punk choruses. Most of my friends disagreed with me on this count, but think it's safe to say that these guys will probably win the mass punk appeal much in the way that Blink did. I imagine that concert crowds will love chanting along, "Down at the haaaarbor..."
Speaking of touring, they've just announced upcoming shows with Streetlight Manifesto, Reel Big Fish, and MXPX. Okay, if those eclectic tour-mates don't speak favorably about these guys, then I don't know what will.
But to return the focus to the songs--"Letter From Dallas" is an example of where those dope instrumentals come out. I swear, I'd love this song even if it weren't for the uncharacteristically crooned opening lyrics, just because the guitar and the choppy bass give me the aesthetically-pleasing warm-and-fuzzies. And "Carolina," which moved me to grin when I read about the song's origins, shows off that same instrumental impressiveness, as well as the catchy vocals. But as I clapped along, after hearing the song for the first time, the real lasting impression that the song left on me summed up the album nicely; "Ironic, catchy, well-sung and well-played... these guys really have the golden-boys thing going on." They're going to spring onto the scene, and you'll be glad you listened to them before the masses did.
So there you have it. I really recommend checking out the band's very popular Purevolume page, especially for information about touring, and check them out in our Featured Release section, for a look into the meanings behind the songs, and to buy the CD itself. They are the big guns. Ready, set, go.
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A.F. '06 |
