Thursday, October 24, 2013

Band Review: Defining Times


Today's band (and tomorrow's) did not come to me via the normal path of being followed by them on Twitter, but it was Twitter-related.
I started following band member Chase Kerby due to another person on Twitter, and her following him seems to have started with his previous band. It works out though, because I have enjoyed listening to them.
One fun thing about the band is their successful avoidance of picking a genre. Even bands that avoid choosing a genre everywhere else usually have something fairly accurate picked out for the Facebook About page. Defining Times did fill in the blank (it might be mandatory), but all it says is "Errthang". Clever, and not at all specific.
At some points they remind me of The Arcade Fire, but really they are pretty much their own thing. There may be a heavier classical music influence than with some bands, but they do not sound like classical music. I guess the most I can say is that they sound like themselves.
There is a somewhat otherworldly feel to them, but perhaps not so much going out into space as that they are operating on the fringes of the psyche. Feelings arise that are not so unfamiliar as to be alien, but there are depths and horizons that feel unexplored.
Songs can be listened to via Bandcamp, as well as purchased there. I cannot pick a song that is representative really. "Streets" was probably the first one that drew me in, with its rhythms, and I respond to it, but it doesn't tell you what the rest of the songs are like. I guess in that way, it kind of is representative.
Because of all of that, I feel like this is not a particularly helpful review. I will say that they are worth listening to, and I will throw out one other thing that may be in their favor.
A while back My Chemical Romance did an interview at the Grammy Museum with the executive director Bob Santelli. Something he relayed to them was that early on a friend had said he had this band (MCR), but he did not know what to do with them, and Santelli thought that was great, because then no one else is doing that yet.
So, it is not just that Defining Times is worth listening to now, but they may also have the potential to go really far.

No comments: