Band/Artist: Merchandise
Year:
2012
Genre: Post-Punk, Shoegaze, New Wave, Folk
My
Review:
Central
Florida s where I grew up, and it is best described as a really
unusual place. People do tons of meth there, Churches are the size of
shopping malls, the elected governor always ends up being an asshole,
and there is a giant metal scene and a smaller (but strong) goth
scene.
Merchandise
was a band suggested to me by a friend from tampa that I used to make
music with. I hadn't been very in touch with the scene in a while,
and missed out on some interesting indie/ shoegaze/ dream pop/ new
wave crossovers. I guess this is referred to as post punk? Honestly i
never know anymore with the soft rock scene, and mostly rely on the
genre listings to help guide me through what exactly i'm listening
to. Okay so enough of that, on to describing the album.
I
wasn't sure what was starting up at the begininng of the first track
I heard, and once the singer started in i started to imagine this
was a group of people who really enjoyed that old Q Lazarus song from
Silence of the Lambs (everybody tuck your junk!). They have a really
pleasant sound, making something that could have easily been placed
back in the early 90's or today. The mix has some really interesting
noise and ambient backings, which a few times during a jog scared the
shit out of me. I think they might push the weird a little far in
some spots with some dissonant moments that took me out of the groove
for a second. The layout of the album is ; short short long, short
short long, and the long tracks seem like theyd be way too much, but
when playing back, it works really well, like a momentary solo jam
session in the midst of the tracks.
They have an older album
listed as well if you liked them a lot, but that one is a little bit
noisier. Nonetheless, if you like it then awesome, this band could
really go somewhere if they build up their recording mixing and keep
it up. I listened to this one over and over for days.
