Chords Are Dead

The Siren (EP)

Record Review by Marcel Feldmar

I just have to start out by saying that the cover art and album design makes me think of early Guided By Voices. That may mean nothing at all, but sometimes these things need to be said. GBV, or if they didn’t bother looking back that far, than perhaps it’s just a Grandaddy style cover art collage thang. But all this makes no matter, because I should just listen to the music and ignore the cover – it’s just that sometimes first impressions do make a difference. I just thought I’d start on the outside and work my way in. I’m thinking cute indie kids doing some Pavement style attacks on pop music love songs. So I’m wrong…

The first song, “Axis One,” shouts out Sonic Youth, in a good way – like Sister/Evol days. The feedback gives me shivers, and while I do wish Amelia Terry’s vocals were a bit higher in the mix, it’s not unforgivable. It’s like a distant yearning melody calling out from past the waves and mountains of guitar. Tim Whitehead’s drums keep a frantic heartbeat against the crash of Amelia’s and Michael Noonan’s guitars. Overdrive dreams and distortion caressed insomnia. A slight hint of some Rainer Maria in the way the lyrics move against the rhythms, and definite nods to some Hüsker Dü sounds, but with definite but slight off-kilter improv moments within the song structures. The songs move from slower to faster, always with the same walls of noise reverberating in the head, creating a distinctive sound that is simultaneously familiar and new.