This psychedelic, spacey shoegaze group from South Bend I discovered at Audiofeed. I was stoked to hear a sound coming from the Front Porch that I was used to hearing come from dark dives with a faint haze of pot hovering in the air.
The Tiny Fires EP kicks off with the title track. Though the backdrop is decidedly spacey shoegaze, the vocals and melody land a little more in the emo – I daresay even pop realm. This genre bending song builds up like a post rock song into a thrilling climax that successfully places a cap on the song.
I’m listening to “Mouthspeak” and it suddenly feels very appropriate that I’m sitting in the middle of Kafe Kerouac, a bar for the modern day beatniks and indie kids of Ohio State. I glance around the room, and I’m painfully aware of how plain and conservative I must appear. Yet, it’s cool. Everyone is blending together into this little micro-social ecosystem at the north end of one of the largest university campuses in the nation. This cohesiveness that shouldn’t work on paper is an allegory for what I’m hearing in these songs. As “Magnetic” begins to play I sip the last of my “Mary Shelley” cocktail (hot cider, caramel, and rum). I feel a slight warmth – though it’s hard to tell if it’s the buzz from the rum or satisfaction from hearing the low end as the song ramps up toward the end.
I feel like this review is more stream-of-consciousness than normal. If it is, it’s probably meant to be that way because of how the music flows. Everything is deliberate, yet my interpretation of them is coming out more like an improvisational piece than a work of art.
The final song, “Treasures,” might be my favorite on the album. It follows the pattern established in the first songs, but has the most poignant melody and overall nicest feeling of the four tracks. I keep glancing around this cafe while it plays. Two women at the coffee table in front of me are playing Trivial Pursuit. Others are studying. Some are taking shots. There’s a strange beauty in all of this – a myriad of sounds to go with a myriad of conversations. These songs aren’t really happy, but they do come across like a series of elegant conversations – shrouded in darkness, where the misfits hang out. I like that.
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