Summer Prep Fight Songs
The weather is starting to warm up and the fine folks at Figureheads ov Pop are tuning their ears for Summer. Here’s a handful of songs that get us pumped for hot days, long nights and good times.

Tracklisting:

1. Restorations - “Let’s Blow Up the Sun”
2. Swearin’ - “Here to Hear”
3. Alkaline Trio - “Broken Wing”
4. Paint it Black - “Little Fists”
5. Muscle & Bone - “No Return”
6. Coliseum - “Fuzzbang”
7. Waxahatchee - “Coast to Coast”
8. Old Flings - “Couch Song”
9. Comadre - “Cold Rain”
10. oddczar - “Russian Girls”
11. The Night Marchers - “(Wasting Time In) Javalinaville”
12. Literature - “Tie Dye(Your Life)”
13. forgetters - “hoop and Swan”
14. Locktender - “The Strangest Secret”

(Source: cred.fm)

Those who have not already read my nerdish accolades for Locktender should familiarize themselves with their EP of collected songs. One such song, the prodigous “Visions of the Daughters of Albion” appears here as promised accompanied by two songs from a Chicago based band known as Brighter Arrows. I will spare you further exaltation of the ex-Men As Trees transcendental post-hardcore trio Locktender and instead focus on their wax-mates. Before taking the plunge though, take a long hard look at the immaculate artwork provided by Benny at Druckwelle Design.

The midwestern quartet offer a much more subdued exhibition of the emo family. Their pedigree comes very clearly from their 90s forefathers—bands like Mineral or Sunny Day Real Estate. The twin songs “Eternity” and “Entirety” reflect and refract the sounds of post-industrial sprawl, intentionally or not, a slowcore-ish sound rolls heavily through each track. The two intricately wound emotional vignettes sound akin to moments on Closer to Closed which found fellow Illinoisan’s Braid returning to offer a different breed of the fruit they planted years ago. Brighter Arrows occasional resemble the current torch bearers of slow, indie emo Empire! Empire! The second track tranquilly rings and ripples with trebley chords and steady bass work, building under the spoken word bridge before a never quite breaking climax. When I first caught wind of this split 10” I wondered how the group would stack up against Locktender. All my high hopes came to fruition as both groups have crafted a gorgeous split.

Here’s the scoop, Locktender is Men as Trees, aged two years and relocated to Cleveland, Ohio. I am not personally familiar with the work they put out under their former name but if this collection of songs is any indication that band had to have been pretty good. This Collected EP consists of three tracks to be split up among three split releases, one with Brighter Arrows, one with Cassilis and one to be announced. The gorgeous cover art was provided by Maxim Rogalski, an illustrator and designer from Germany. One of my favorite experiences in life is when the music or book that accompanies a great piece of cover art fully satisfies the expectation the image provides the groundwork for. So with no further ado…

When listening to this musical triptych it is hard to think of this as a collection, these three songs feel more like movements in a full work. The complete recording clocks in at just shy of 25 minutes following a long, short, long frame work with the first and last tracks tipping the scales at roughly 10 minutes each. At first glance this short yet lengthy EP seems daunting. Attempting to take on such a long-winded approach to Screamo—a genre possibly known best for its brevity—while avoiding self-indulgent variations and swells that often alienate listeners is an ample challenge for even the most weathered composers.

The frantic and grandiose “Visions of the Daughters of Albion” gently nods at Circle Takes the Square influences but does not brazenly cop such a unique sound and pass it off as it’s own. The best contemporary comparison for the band may be Loma Prieta if parallels must be drawn but again the resemblance is fleeting, only present in undertones and the stylistic trajectory of an unstated tradition in post-hardcore that has been quietly at work since the early 90s.

Their are a few components of Locktender’s “sound” that stand out to me: one is a good sense of dynamics and stereo space, the recordings in this collection warmly glow in a consciously analog manner, fully saturating the high and low frequencies at almost all times yet remaining clear and distinct; another is in the sepulchral tone of the polyphonic vocals and occasional chanting; and lastly in the way that the whole record transcends the hysterical platitudes typically associated with this genre. “The Strangest Secret” introduces itself with a summery chord progression and the comparatively short song sonically expounds with celebratory color.

All three tracks express human emotions, poetic balance, grace and motion to marvel at the arcane and the barefaced realities of life. Albeit my description of this record is painfully embellished and I hope that this does not give you the impression that this is all some jazzy highfalutin’ exclusive art school drop out crap; make no mistake, the florid moments are far from grotesque ornamentation but painstakingly deliberate and necessary. However, there is plenty of blood and muscle to this record and it hits where it needs to but refreshingly it does not harp on common first-world emotional crises or dark, nihilist-posturing. No over saturated trend following, no irony, no self-conscious trend bucking. Earnest experimentation crafted by capable hands.