Up From the Underground: G2P

G2p is not the name of the robot from the new Star Wars trailer, it is a band from Tampa. The affinity for up beat grooves seems more fitting for a band out of Jacksonville or Fort Lauderdale, instead of the city best know for pretty much creating death metal as we now know it. This guys fit into the guilty pleasure side of the dial. If you thought early Incubus was not that bad then you will understand the frequency these guys are coming from. The singer even as a twinge of Brandon Boyd to his voice. They know how to reach for the big hooks like Incubus once did during their late 90's heyday.

One thing I found impressive about these guys is how they have some funk and reggae to their sound, but have the restraint and good taste to not turn this into rap rock. What they got the have to give to your mother on "Me". Though they are more fluidly rock than Flea and company. They are smoking from the same bong as 311 at times . They bring to mind the famous Keith Richards quote "It's better to steal than to barrow, if you barrow you have to give it back." This fits for G2P, once you think you have them red handed, they inject something with a very different identity. You think that's the Chilli Peppers's guitar tone? Think again there is a slight country twang to it. Through out the album , which is very well produced, the guitarist sorts through some interesting clean tones, his distorted tone, might not appease metal fans who need a much thicker gain. These guys are also in standard tuning which sometimes gives the more casual chugs a Green Day feel.

The singer's brassy second tenor, knows it's way around a melody. He has enough personality to it so he doesn't sounds like an Adam Levine clone. He even touches on the sort of charisma a pop singer like Bruno Mars capitalizes on. I like the throaty blues accents he throws in really quickly.

The band closes the ep out with the most adventurous song "Scream". It hits almost Tool inflected prog. The drummer shows his worth on this song. It sounds like this is the one they have the most fun with live and cranked up to ten it comes across heavier than in the studio as well. Even the darker palm muted opening riff of "Purge", suggests these guys have a metal side that is battling against the desire to be radio friendly. If this is pop rock then I will take these guys any day over the beardy folk thing.

 

Merchandise:"After the End"

Their first album on the former goth label 4AD, the Tampa band gives me what I have wanted since the release of their Totale Nite ep, an entire album of well produced songs .It only makes sense considering they've headed into a more song focused direction. So what occurs is... they kick things off with a slightly Smiths like sway  to the upbeat guitar phrasing of the opener.This song rides the lines in being almost to straightforward and poppy for me, but the dead pan vocal approach saves it.

"True Monument" picks up where the opener left off , carrying it back into the more morose sound and lyrical content I want from these guys. It takes them until " Green Lady" to really hit the sweet spot I know they are capable of. The melody is not as down trodden as some of the stuff from "Totale Nite" , in fact it is more introspective and only half as cynical. It's a little dreamier and more like the Cure in some ways.

They nail it on " Life Outside the Mirror". It is a dreary ballad of sorts , where Carson Cox even lets his voice float up into a falsetto. The guitar lingers on every not even in the solo. Oddly the pace picks up on "Telephone". It more like 80's pop. The chorus is pretty strong and the use of real drums works in the songs favor. It is different for the band, the solo even reminds me of something that would be on a Zappa album. Strange as this song is in it's Billy Joel mannerisms, it still  gets pulled off well.

"Little Killer" whose video is featured below, is another upbeat and more straight forward rock like number. The vocals sell me on this despite the "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" accents to the guitar.Things slow back down on "Looking Glass Waltz" , which reminds me of a more slacker version of "Whiter Shade of Pale" , particularly when it comes to the keyboards in the back ground. The nuances in the vocals are subtle . but full of his personality.

The title track is more of an instrumental interlude with vocals only coming in during the final 15 seconds or so.A slower song with introspective and moody lyrics, that gradual picks up and allows his vocals to reach out of their more dead pan baritone. The song writing and the singing on this have all improved, live you can hear these guys have some chops and they are more displayed here. I';; go ahead and around it up to a 10.

Acheron : " Kult des Hasses"

I go back to 1992 with Vincent Crowley. When they came out around 88, I would have said this was black metal, as these guys or say Impaled Nazerene were satanic death metal , that was even darker than Venom so it only made sense at the time to think of them as such. The only and only album I have owned by these guys was "Rites of the Black Mass" which got a lot of play from me in high school. Even back them , I knew they were Morbid Angel rip-off's, but were darker and more melodramatic, creating their own rituals rather than growling a bunch of Lovecraft gibberish, which I later came to enjoy. At the time the fact Crowley was a member of the Church of Satan, is what won me over as some where around Seasons in the Abyss, Slayer came out and said all the satanic trappings they used were just a gimmick.


These guys still worship at the Altars of Madness, but crafting it in a more mature and masterful fashion/ There are moments which by todays standards fall even short of being death metal, like the groove heavy "Jesus Wept" which sounds more like something Lamb of God would do. The riff to "Thy Father Suicide" reminds me of Twisted Sister's "Captain Howdy". But even with these moment, and perhaps especially due to these moments it makes me wonder why these guys are not bigger at least in their respective genre than they are. They guitar playing in pretty top notch and drumming certainly holds it's own in a genre where drums are an athletic event as much as they are an artform.

The do keep up with the times and still have the power to blast through a song like "Misanthropic Race". It's pretty straight forward considering where the more extreme genres of metal have gone and finds it's self falling much closer back to death metal than they would like to admit in the days when every thing is black something as we have seen here during our focus on black metal in black history month.They are more focused on songwriting than the bulk of the tech bands and their solos have more form and function than even Morbid Angels'.The most black metal moment on the album feels to be "Satan Holds Dominion" which comes the closest to what we think of as black metal today.

I'm all for a little misogyny in metal, it gives it a more barbaric feel, lyrically "Whores and Harlots" has this in spades and the verse riffing is tightly syncopated making for stand out songwriting. They take on the fury of Deicide but keep it more melodic and have a bass line that you can actually hear on "Axphyxiation". The album closes with the punk/rocknroll feel of "Devil's Black Blood' , where they dumb it down into a more Motorhead/Venom style of playing. But you can't say this album doesn't have variety to it, which is more than can be said from many bands who just focus on heavy and all their songs end up sounding the same.

I am pretty impressed with what is being done here even if at times it is not the most original, but no body has ever said these guys were going to reinvent the wheel, what they have done is created one that is well made and thoughtfully crafted.The albums only draw back is at times it is almost too straightforward for my tastes these days , though as a teenager I would have no doubt given this album a ten all the way as it stand I am being generous with high hopes this will grow on me to round it up to a 9, but these days Morbid Angel doesn't sound like Morbid Angel so these guys can claim the empty throne.

Merchandise@ the EARL

The East Atlanta Village on a Halloween night was less impressive than one would think, douche bags in store bought costumes are underwhelming when you have been to Dragon Con and Comic con, the Earl was fairly low key, a guy with scruff dressed as Pee- Wee Herman and a few costumes in the front bar, nothing special. EAV was particularly un-creepy, the creepiest moment was walking into the Earl to find George Batille Battle Cry, banging away in the darkened corner, not on the stage but their singer spasming on the floor, like it was a house show. I was surprised to find out they are an Atlanta band , as we don't get much dark music around town as it goes more into the indie fare, but they are like a post- punk Jesus Lizard.

I t was apparent from the turn out the hipsters care more about some electro hip hop show at the Basement that rock n roll particularly if said rock n roll carries any substance. Merchandise were milling around each other in front of the stage before they went on I would have not noticed them until their singer went on stage, set his drink down and grabbed the acoustic guitar before coming down to joke with his band mates.

I think the low turn out for the band was a telling sign of how behind the times Atlanta is when it comes to new music, being caught up with garage rock and stoner metal . My expectation of this show ere highly elevated beyond reality, because Merchandise, is one of my favorite new bands which is not new news if you read this blog. I expected some sort of new wave flamboyance, as they almost have a Smiths like vibe to their music, which ended up not transitioning over live.

They took the stage casually, and simmered to live in a wall of tender sonics that combined tuning their instruments in a swell of sound. They captured a sound live that would have much more in common with shoe gaze than any other tags that might have been attached to them in the past. The darker element to their music was more a bar room brooding than any thing close to goth or even post-punk. The Florida's old punk roots came to the fore front as the singer banged at the acoustic guitar with a sneer.

The song that carried the most impact live was "Anxiety's Door" is brought what had been a more dreamy shoe gaze vibe into a condensed charge. I could hear similarities to perhaps Husker Du , in the translation of live drums applied to the songs, rather than their normal more electronic feel, which with three guitars , bass and drums onstage it was a much more rock feel than what is depicted on the albums, not to say it became too organic, as the guitars all found their own space, on the last song one of the guitarists played keys and the singer abandoned his guitar by the end of the that song as well.

Singer Carson Cox's voice held are more monotone baritone, rather than his more acrobatic croon which floats over their recorded material, but he was rather drunk, mumbling in between numbers, and aware of the understated presence of the band by saying, "I'm just another ass hole who is not dressed up". But it is rock no roll and it gave him more of a Jim Morrison like swagger than the Morrissey flamboyance I expected.; he seemed impressed by the Earl's sound, while I getting more of the monitor mix so maybe his vocals were coming through hotter in the house speakers.

My first time catching the band, I would like to catch them again, now that i know what to expect as I feel, they try to capture the moment rather than dial in a similar set list.