Gerard Way - "Hesitant Alien" album review

If the name “Gerard Way” is unfamiliar and even “alien” to you, you might remember a band crusading through the 2000s called My Chemical Romance that released such tunes as “Welcome to the Black Parade”, and “I’m not Okay(I Promise)”  through the span of their 4-full-length album duration. Since re-defining their sound with the surprising “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys” back in 2010 the group has disbanded, released a “best-of” compilation in March of this year, and reportedly began working on projects separately. None of these musical projects had risen to a professionally recorded release until now. Lead singer Gerard Way’s “Hesitant Alien” breaks the dramatic silence My Chem left  in the world of “dangerous pop-rock” left with a fuzzy, yet familiar album that utilizes the guitar more prevalently than modern popular music has in years.

    Yes, there are elements of MCR’s last record scattered and pasted throughout “Alien” (Atmospheric synths, crispier-than-crisp snare drum tuning, and catchy, layered vocal recording) but with the opening track “Bureau” and it’s distorted, chordy bassline, the first few seconds the album screams that it is NOT My Chemical Romance, maybe at all. Maybe.

    The rhythmic, punky guitar parts that screech into the song before Way yells “Get up. Get in. The operator for the boogeyman..” craft a dark and theatrical vibe reminiscent “The Black Parade” but at a much slower pace and preceding the garageband-tone intro of “Action Cat” that proudly abandons the dark pageantry of the opening track with  resoundingly positive energy when Way sings “We can make it up again. We don’t care, we just pretend.”

    It’s as if the singer abandons the tired stumble of some hungover parade march in order to fire up a flashy, red sportscar while blaring the radio and singing at the top of his lungs as he passes the worn-out marching band. The fact that the melodies are so undeniably catchy and accompanied by loose, rock n’ roll guitar tones engage the listener to hop in the passenger seat. After a short transition that sounds like five seconds of The Beatles’ “I Am The Walrus” Way sings “Do you miss me? Cause I missed you.” Judging by the SoundCloud comments on the stream of the album, the fans truly did, and Way’s lyrics feel like catching with an old friend you haven’t conversed with since high school.

         “No Shows” continues upbeat vibes of the previous track with more dirty, fuzzy guitar tones a la “Sonic Youth” and nasally (but not as nasally) vocal work a la Billy Corgan, that really launch into the magic as the chorus refrains “Stay free. Don’t Go. Cause we don’t need no shows” surrounded by ambient “oohs” that catapult the tune above expectations. The track is a fantastic example of the sound that “Hesitant Alien” accomplishes; a noisy but focused and melodically irresistible texture that at times could be just as inspired by Bowie and The Beatles (see Octopus’ garden for the tremolo effects) as Cage the Elephant, MGMT, and even late My Chemical Romance for it’s atmosphere and package.

 It would have been simple and possibly profitable for the frontman of a world-touring pop-rock band to go electronic, like his 2012 feature on DeadMau5 song “Professional Griefers”, but instead Way took only the atmospheric synths of his band's’ last release, incorporated his ear for feeling-evoking chord progressions/melodies, and presented “Alien” drenched in what he happened to be into lately- fuzz pedals. The result is similar to what Nirvana did to grunge, take the melodic, song-writing influences of early british pop music and cloak it in a loud, emerging genre. Gerard Way just became the Kurt Cobain of whatever music Michael Cera’s band in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World played.

    

What We Do In Secret - "The Migration" EP Review

September 16th local, christian hardcore band What We Do In Secret dropped their sophomore EP “The Migration” on Itunes in preparation for the release show and music video shoot at The Hi-Tone.

    These six guys, including Memphis student Josh Adams, compiled a jammy, six-track tribute to religion with the most pristine production to “grace” a Memphis metal band in recent memory.  Such production is due in part to the boards being manned by Bobby Lynge, guitar player of Fit For A King; who have made significant waves of their own in metalcore scenes throughout the country and whose word of mouth seems to radiate everywhere from Nashville to Instagram.

    Fresh off of extensive shows on the Vans Warped Tour, Lynge crafted WWDIS’ already empowering, technical sound into a dynamic and enticingly smooth array of riffs and rhythmical sturdiness built by the capable drumwork of Devin Harris and complemented by the gnarly, throaty shriek of Adams’ lyrics.

    Evidence of Lynge’s metal-mixing “know-how” becomes apparent early-on when the guitars on title track “No Shelter” flawlessly vanish to make way for a slithery bassline by Drew Nance that sonically is surrounded by rhythmic, dungeon-chain(?) effects; dynamically allowing the distortion of Adams’ vocals to cut through with an emotionally pleasing vengeance. The band builds and then kicks back in after guitarists Austin Barnes and Clay Crenshaw swap a teeth-grindingly tasty riff that remind the listener of the well-balanced tone the guitars are recorded with on this record.

    It is on the second track “Brothers Keeper” that Secret lets their Norma Jean influence right out of the bag with organized chaotic bursts of bendy axe-work and 3 second blast beats, but also straightforwardly commune into a headbanger of a breakdown around the 1:20 mark reminiscent of acts like their producers’ own group. The band continues the track with a meaty, southern influenced guitar riff complete with panic chords that prove “Brothers Keeper” to be a short, yet memorable piece of “The Migration” with tons of replay value.

    “Water It Down” changes pace with it’s clean guitar intro and anthemic clean vocals that sing “Pull me back together with the pieces that you found at the bottom of the river. I gave into the current and I let my body drown.” as Adams’ answers the end of each line with his rhythmic yells and ultimately screams “That’s where I found my savior”.                            

   The organized chaos WWDIS is locally known for returns on “Den of Thieves” and offers several catchy vocal patterns sure to please any gang vocalist or concert attendee looking to exorcize attitude. The band bursts into a ¾ time signature on the title track which peaks after the chorus refrains “I’m a Wanderer. I never knew myself. I’d move from here to anywhere” when Adams double tracks his vocals to scream “My existence is as you define it. I am as you define me.” over trippy, introspective riffage reminiscent of a more hardcore-based version of Tool.

    The group ends the EP with “Grey Grace” a track that takes a page from The Devil Wears Prada’s “Louder than Thunder” and effectively closes the experience with ambient production and mournful vocals.