Xtra Mile Recordings | Heartbreaking Bravery

October 26, 2014

Watch This: Vol. 51

It’s been two weeks since the last regular Watch This segment, which means that there was twice as much to keep tabs on throughout the series’ (relative) absence. Every band that’s featured in the 51st installment has been previously covered on the site, which means a lot of old (and new) favorites are swinging for the fences. All five bands put out a great release this year and every single one of them had an incredible live performance surface over the past 14 days. There’s fuzz, lilt, and an abundance of passion all packaged together in the 51st round of this weekly spot and everything’s worth devouring. So, as always, pour a drink, sit back, turn the volume up to blistering heights, get comfortable, and Watch This.

1. Joanna Gruesome – Anti-Parent Cowboy Killers (BreakThruRadioTV)

For not releasing a full-length this year, 2014’s been very strong for the Joanna Gruesome camp. A few incredible splits (one of which was first announced here nearly a year ago), a great collaborative music video pairing, one of the year’s best songs, and a few appearances in this very series all hint that this is a band determined to continuously achieve more at a breakneck pace. That determination paired with live performances on par with this run through “Anti-Parent Cowboy Killers” and it’ll be impossible to stand in their way.

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2. Dilly Dally – Candy Mountain (Chart Attack)

Dilly Dally is a name that’s been appearing with a frequent regularity as of late and that’s no mistake; any emerging act that comes off as a fully-realized project is worth several spotlights. “Green” and “Candy Mountain” both surfaced relatively recently and immediately became talking points among a very specific subset of circles. Punk, shoegaze, and indie pop all find a brooding middle ground in the band’s music and Katie Monk’s voice is as attention-ensuring as they come. Chart Attack had them in for a session that definitely proves their live act’s not to be trifled with, either.

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3. Cheap Girls – Amazing Grace (Little Elephant)

A very specific brand of 90’s nostalgia is triggered by Cheap Girls’ music, which often plays like a carefully assembled and loving homage to the alternative sounds of that era. They’ve yet to make a weak record and continue to excel in the live department, which is the area that best exemplifies how they made their stock and trade. Famous Graves extended Cheap Girls’ winning streak with a practiced ease and the band keeps delivering memorable performance. This take on “Amazing Grace” is no exception.

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4. Fear of Men – Green Sea (Faits Divers)

Loom already seems to have become one of 2014’s most overlooked records, which is a small tragedy. That record’s lack of what should have been well-deserved attention allowed Fear of Men to continue quietly excelling at just about everything they attempt, with their live performances attaining and carrying a certain hypnotic quality. Here, they deliver an acoustic version of “Green Sea” in Dijon and cement a spot as one of today’s most under-appreciated acts.

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5. Radiator Hospital – Fireworks (BNTYK)

More than a few kind words have been used on Radiator Hospital and Torch Song (easily one of the year’s best records) via this site over the past year. So, it’s no surprise that “Fireworks” is on this list- especially considering BNTYK is one of the only video series to ever have a Watch This installment dedicated exclusively to their videos. Here, though, both Radiator Hospital and BNTYK outdo themselves and the results are utterly sublime. When the chorus hits, it’s a visceral gut-punch that offers direct insight to what makes the band so special, while the way it’s lensed is worthy of the moment. It’s a genuinely powerful example of what a truly great live video can accomplish. This is must-see entertainment operating at a level of excellence on a multitude of levels; don’t miss out.

August 2, 2014

The Frankl Project – Day at the Races (Stream)

Pop-punk has always been a deeply problematic genre. More than just about any other style of music that gained significant attention throughout the last decade and a half, pop-punk seemed to get too hung up on its own hallmarks. Elongated vowels, clichéd lyrics about love and heartbreak, a certain amount of bombast, and a total unwillingness to say- or attempt- something new. If anyone broke from the tried-and-true mold, they stuck out like a sore thumb- and became all the more interesting for it. Enter: The Frankl Project. Their most recent full-length, 2013’s excellent Standards, was one of that year’s best surprises thanks to an emphasis on grit and humility unheard elsewhere. All of the songs on that record were backed up by intelligence and conviction- and an ample amount of instrumental chops. It was an inward look at very specific types of collapse that never became overwrought or overstepped its bounds. By the time its dozen songs had played themselves out, it was fairly evident that it deserved to be embraced as either a genre classic or a very welcome step forward for a style that’d become so redundant.

Last month, during this site’s festival coverage period, the Cincinatti trio quietly released Little Wrecking Ball, an online-only two-song effort. While the title track works well as a lead-off (and on its own), it’s the second song of the pair that steals the show. Everything that made Standards so great has been pinpointed and emphasized, leaving no doubt that the band should be heading places. Furthering this theory is the fact that “Day at the Races” was recently hand-picked by Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace to lead off the unsigned side of Xtra Mile Recordings fascinating (and absolutely vital) Smokin’ (Signed vs. Unsigned) compilation. It’s easy to see what Grace finds so appealing here; the guitar tones are incendiary, the song structure is intelligent, the instrumental sections are uniformly excellent, the down-trodden lyrics are clever but contained, and the drop to half-time that closes everything out at the end is a thing of perfection. Moreover, when guitarist/vocalist Jacob Tippey sings, and this is key, it’s difficult not to believe everything he says. Tippey’s delivery is as purposeful as the music itself and pairing the two together makes for an explosive combination. Underneath his impassioned delivery, a menacing bassline (courtesy of Paul Schroder, who took the extraordinary shot that serves as the release’s cover) is joined by Joseph Frankl’s always-impressive drumming and Tippey’s inventive, meldoy-heavy guitarwork. All of those elements together make for a molotov cocktail of a tune that proves pop-punk can still be something worth listening to.

Listen to “Day at the Races” below and make sure to catch these guys next time they hit the road- their live act’s not one worth missing.

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February 20, 2014

Cheap Girls – Knock Me Over (Stream)

Cheap Girls have been one of the more intriguing touring acts since their debut, Find Me A Drink Home. While their deeply-indebted 90’s powerpop sound has proved surprisingly divisive, it’s always been hard to label them as revivalists. Theirs has been a sound that’s felt, more than any other act treading those waters, genuinely timeless. Even with 2012’s extraordinary Giant Orange, the band earned comparisons to bands as varied as Big Star, R.E.M., Elvis Costello, and the Gin Blossoms. They’ve always put exquisite care into their songcraft, no matter what the release (“Pure Hate” off of a split 7″ with Lemuria deserves to be considered a classic) and the upcoming Famous Graves looks to continue that trend.

Famous Graves will be the band’s first effort for new label Xtra Mile Recordings, after jumping off of Rise- a metal label that’s core audience frequently reacted very negatively to the band. Xtra Mile looks to be a much better (and much more beneficial) fit for the band, especially considering the levels of early enthusiasm for a record that has ample time for a pre-release run (Famous Graves is out officially on May 13th). Kicking off that pre-release run is “Knock Me Over”, which finds the band in typically outstanding form. Lead personality Ian Graham infuses the hard-driving powerpop song with characteristically weary lyrics that don’t lack in wit or memorable lines. It’s this quality, matched with the band’s increasing ambition, that makes them a perfect fit for their upcoming tour alongside literary-minded Midwest (via Brooklyn) music staples The Hold Steady.

Really, the closest cousin that “Knock Me Over” seems to have are the songs The Hold Steady have slowly been unveiling in advance of Teeth Dreams. Both bands draw a lot of influence from classic rock archetypes and both instill a sense of youthful exuberance into their work, no matter how battered the core topics are. There’s a sense of a kind of beautiful acceptance in both bands’ Us vs. the World mentality, as both realize that the world’s always going to win just by virtue of being bigger. Cheap Girls summarize this acceptance best in the chorus of “Knock Me Over”, lacing it with a subtle pang of regret that makes their lesson feel hard-won. Listen to “Knock Me Over” below and take a trip through a selection of the band’s discography here.