Free was all they had left in the tank creatively with the hardcore sound. That's pretty much scattered across every interview and podcast they've done
There's a big difference between progressing as a band and trend hopping, which with this band it has always come across as the latter. Album is OK, I doubt I'll come back to it much.
turnover, pity sex, nothing, title fight. none of those sound alike, but they all are doing the "shoegaze by way of pop punk" thing.
I can't get enough of this album! It's unlike any other transition to shoegaze/post-punk I've seen yet. There are a lot of bands who lost me as a fan because the quality of their imitation of the trend left a lot to be desired. This is just masterful though. They took everything accessible from hardcore instrumentals and shoegaze broadly and made something that kind of comes off as a pop album. This is my AOTY so far.
Finally got around to listening to this. Basically pretty straightforward grunge-revival type jams with a shoegazey-y filter over them. Not overly impressive but certainly not bad considering this is apparently their first swing at anything outside of metal or whatever. Does not rely heavily enough on its influences to warrant a "ripoff" label, imo. Not sure how much I'll be returning to this but they've definitely got my attention for future releases.
I always saw their hardcore stuff as very average, and basically in the same realm as a TGI, Gideon, and the likes but nothing quite as distinct as TGI. Like I couldn't pick one of their songs out of a crowd of run of the mill melodic hardcore songs if I tried but this change is huge imo. It does seem a bit trendy to go this route but they made it their own enough to be distinct and did a pretty good job at it so I can't complain if this is the direction that makes them happy. This also suits my own change in taste a lot more than anything they could have done in their old style. I'm excited to see where they can take this and build upon
I've heard good stuff about Gleemer, just haven't had the time to check them out recently with so much other music coming out lately. The other ones are totally unknown to me
I saw Tennis System last year and I loved it. They should have a new album out by the end of the year.
I I don't know...I speak just for myself of course but it's my least favorite venue around .... I just never felt comfortable there lol