Here’s a band that likes to bike. There’s a gorgeous photo on the cover of the three band members either cycling over a wooden bridge that crosses a picturesque river, or superimposed cycling over a wooden bridge that crosses a picturesque river (I believe it’s likely the former, it’s just that in the way it’s photographed, as well as on the picture on the inside, the guys themselves are kind of blurry and out of focus, while the scenery is not). Some of the songs themselves—although the lyrics are not written in their entirety and I have not listened to them thoroughly enough to know for sure—also seem to reference biking and/or the pains associated with driving. I quite love to bike myself (cursed San Francisco wind aside), so I can totally dig where it seems like they’re coming from, but to me this CD is kind of like how I view a “no thanks” they include in the insert: “No thanks to anyone who honks or yells at cyclists. May you die with a greasy chain around your neck, choking on your angry screams.” Now obviously my take on that statement is only my own perception of it, but I think it’s the punctuation in it that makes it seem to me lacking in any kind of serious venom. And that’s fine! No problem there. Best to save the venom for the really important occasions, in my opinion. But that’s how I kind of feel about the music as well—it’s nice, the guitar is melodic, clean, the recording is really good, they seem to be good musicians, I can see some people getting into it, but for me, it just doesn’t turn my crank. There’s not a hook that grabs me, a weirdness, a beat, something new (although it was recorded in 2003—maybe I would have been more into it then?). They recorded in Virginia (only a little south of where I grew up—hi, hometown!), and the style does remind me of some of the post-hardcore emo / math-y kind of stuff that comes from that area. I like the third song, “Glove Box” the best- the bass is a little heavier and the vocals are a bit more urgent. A fine effort, and one that is sure to make some listeners very happy, just not my thing.
–Jennifer Federico (Morning Light co-released with Discoparlante, discoparlante.com)