I was talking with a friend about my love for My Chemical
Romance, and he said he kind of wanted to hate them, but the music was too
good. My initial thought was why would you want to hate them, and if someone is
putting good music out there we celebrate that, but it occurred to me later to
wonder if maybe some of the impulse to dislike them was that they were younger.
In our critical musical periods, we tend to be looking up
to musicians who are older than us, and that cannot last. Either we end up
clinging to oldies and never finding anything new and good (is this why people
turn to country?), or we die young, or eventually you have to start letting the
young people come around.
Since I am now listening mostly to bands that are younger
than me, I guess I have made my choice, but I have found myself distracted by
age at other times, and it happened first at the Rejects concert.
When we got inside there was already a band on. They
weren’t on the bill, so this was clearly the local band brought in to warm up
the crowd. It turns out they were Sunderland, from Hood River, consisting of
four young men. In the past, the Crystal has not been great for opening acts,
but this one was pretty good, and we got into it, and I sought out their merch
table (there were four merch tables there), and bought a CD of theirs.
The point I want to make is that I liked them, and they
did a good job. To some extent, it was just a great night where everything was
good, but they were a part of that, and they came on first, so it’s not like
they were getting buzz from other bands. I make such a point of this because
some of the things I write about them now are going to sound like criticism,
and I don’t want to give the wrong impression.
They were distractingly young. It wasn’t a boy band kind
of young, because they were playing their instruments and playing hard, and
really they were doing a good job, but it also kind of seemed like play, where
the next band on (Parachute) was really probably only a few years older, but
there was not the sense of kids playing dress-up. Sunderland was boys and
Parachute was men.
I bought the Sunderland EP, but they also gave me a promo
CD for free, and there is a deluxe version of the EP on Spotify, plus there are
some videos online, so I have been checking all of those out.
I’m not sure whom to compare them to. “Clear to Me”
reminds me a little of Owl City’s “Fireflies”, but that may be more a matter of
tone. I was thinking that I preferred their older work, produced by Linus
Dotson, to the newer tracks produced by John Fields, but “Reason” is new, and I
think it holds up pretty well.
Mainly I think they need time. For example, looking at
their song “Campus”, it is about seeing a girl on the MAX (although the video
shows the streetcar—a lot more filming seems to happen on the streetcar), going
after her in a split second decision, and the birth and death of that
relationship, going back to the refrain, “It’s funny how in a moment, my life
can change.” That is an interesting thought, and the video takes the track that
even seeing pending disaster, he is still going for it, which I kind of like,
however, listening to the song, it is hard to believe that they have ever
really been in a relationship with moving in together, and things falling apart
in ugly ways, and not being able to move on. The story of the breakup seems
completely unconvincing, based on convenient rhymes.
“Kaylee Keep Your Hands Off” seems more their speed,
about a girl who will not leave a guy alone, though he is not interested.
(Though I’m not sure I like the attitude. There may be some chauvinism/misogyny
going on there. This can happen with guys who never got anywhere with girls,
blamed the girls, and then put it into their music. There are at least two
songs that I question, but I am sensitive about that.)
So, again, just young, and the video of them at Sky High
(a trampoline place) didn’t change that, but nonetheless, the music is very
listenable, even the least of it, and some of it is really good. “Kaylee” may
be a trivial song in some ways, but they have some fun things going on in the
background. I guess we call those “pop hooks”. And “Tell Me” I absolutely love.
I think it’s beautiful, and it sounds sincere. I believe it on a level that I
don’t believe “Campus”
I guess what I am saying is that I will give them a
chance. One thing I was talking about with Rebecca on our way out of the
concert, comparing with her American Idol history, is that the process of
playing in the garage, and struggling to get gigs, and building up that way, is
a completely different experience than going on auditions and a reality show,
and it makes a difference. I am starting to see a real danger in signing too
soon, and I’m sure I will write more about that later.
For now, I’m saying Sunderland has some credibility, and
they are worth checking out. It will be interesting to see what they grow into.
And shoot, if you are a teenage girl instead of a cranky old woman, you may
just whole-heartedly love them. For now, I think they have talent, and as their
souls grow and they find their voice, they could have something really good
there.
At least listen to “Tell Me”. It’s beautiful.
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