Its jerky, angular and just a bit shouty! Can you guess the genre? Well, thats probably being unfair to Portland, ORs Joggers and their not-as-derivative-as-youd-think post-punk indie style, but, really, this could be taken as another shout out to Gang of Four. Theres a dash of something new in the Asian tinge to opener "Ziggurat Traffic, but "Wicked Light Sleeper is pure throwback. Now, dont take it as a bad thing, as the riffs, intricate guitars and sneering sing-shouts actually make for a decent track. Indeed, most of the album, while reminding, passes muster due to the dedication and quality of the tracks. Why, you even get a dash of inspiration as "Weve Been Talked Down features some great layered guitar work and "Since Youre Already Up gets the feet moving with perfect choruses that pushes these tracks beyond the usual influences. Adding up all the elements here, its actually quite hard to make a good argument about why post-punk bands should be tossed aside casually as if theyre just "fad bands. While the Joggers may sound familiar, theyre just so fucking good at what they do, its very hard to nail them to the wall with it.
At the beginning of "Ziggurat Traffic theres a distinctive Asian influence, but, it doesnt really appear again. Why the one-off? Vocalist/guitarist Ben Whitesides: We dont map out our music before its written. We dont say, "Lets have three dance songs, three with unusual tunings, and a couple more with this or that. We like a lot of Eastern music influenced by the West; Western music influenced by the East, but distilling influences is a futile thing, I think.
The press has been pretty damn good. From an earlier interview, you said, "I feel toughened to this sort of shit. I hope I'm right. Any updates on this? Well youre talking about two different things. The difficulties I have had with being in a band have nothing to do with the press weve received. When I spoke about toughening up I was speaking in general terms about reacting badly to different things in my life, only some of them related to being in a band. Despite the endless beer gauntlets, innumerable nights sleeping in the van, and tedious drives, I can say that this is the most fun Ive ever had on tour.
(Star Time International)At the beginning of "Ziggurat Traffic theres a distinctive Asian influence, but, it doesnt really appear again. Why the one-off? Vocalist/guitarist Ben Whitesides: We dont map out our music before its written. We dont say, "Lets have three dance songs, three with unusual tunings, and a couple more with this or that. We like a lot of Eastern music influenced by the West; Western music influenced by the East, but distilling influences is a futile thing, I think.
The press has been pretty damn good. From an earlier interview, you said, "I feel toughened to this sort of shit. I hope I'm right. Any updates on this? Well youre talking about two different things. The difficulties I have had with being in a band have nothing to do with the press weve received. When I spoke about toughening up I was speaking in general terms about reacting badly to different things in my life, only some of them related to being in a band. Despite the endless beer gauntlets, innumerable nights sleeping in the van, and tedious drives, I can say that this is the most fun Ive ever had on tour.
