Snowing--I Could Do Whatever I Wanted If I Wanted

Stream the album here

Add Snowing to the list of hundreds of contemporary bands that directly and poorly emulate their sound from mid-90s Midwest emo bands. It is painstakingly obvious that the Pennsylvanian foursome listened to too much Cap’n Jazz in high school and decided to hop on the current emo revival bandwagon, minus the stereotypical notion that one has to be perpetually sad. Music style aside, Snowing’s first full-length album I Could Do Whatever I Wanted If I Wanted is a 29.1 minute long collection of poorly curated and constructed songs.

Released this past year as a follow-up to their widely circulated five-track demo/EP, Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit, this latest release has proved to be classic Snowing—boring and repetitive. Every single song sounds exactly the same with no particular unique parts that help listeners make distinctions between them other than a line or two of occasional vocal chants. It is impossible to tell whether or not a song has completely ended because the next track is its exact equivalent; this poor excuse for a band may as well have released an album with eleven duplicate tracks of one song. Because of this, the album lacks the feel of being a whole entity and lyrically ends up sounding like an assorted mix tape compilation consisting of someone crying about his most recent break-up, being caught up in an unfortunate situation and, strangely enough, decided that the act of reading House of Leaves was important enough to warrant its own song.

Besides lacking any emotional depth, Snowing is also musically forgettable. The vocalist’s jagged high-decibel wailing may be piercing and striking at first, but it gradually blends in with messy versions of the characteristic and overused mathy guitar work reminiscent of a string of 8-bit video game music (in the same key, nonetheless). Imagine hearing your fifteen-year-old son’s first ever punk band playing a show in your suburban garage—ten times faster while drunk—and you have the entirety of I Could Do Whatever I Wanted If I Wanted. By the end of each song, the constant whining becomes inaudible as the violent crash of so-calling “singing,” screaming, and instrumentation collide together like a predicted earthquake. It may sound the exact opposite of dull, but after hearing identical noises for precisely 29.1 minutes, it can get old.

Fans of Cap’n Jazz, Algernon Cadwallader, Grown Ups and the like should give this album a quick listen if only just to become familiar with this band who has made a small but well-known name for themselves in today’s emo scene. What they will discover is a group of guys whose only goal seems to be playing in a band “just because” and an eleven-song album dedicated entirely to unskilled guitar playing and complaining. Snowing plays songs for the sake of playing songs, and to them, there really is nothing more. 

Evenings--North Dorm EP

Stream the EP Here

Charlottesville, Virginia native Nathan Broaddus, performing under the moniker “Evenings,” is one of the many trying to pursue projects which dabble with the possibilities of electronic music. Where he succeeds is where others try and fall short. His “North Dorm” EP, although not a full-length album, exhibits Broaddus’ full musical prowess and his strong desire to creatively advance ambient and electronic music.

Unexpected heavier beats (which have an almost hip-hop quality to them) accompanied with supple tones and whispered vocal samples mixed in with samples of sounds found in nature distinguish his music from other run-of-the-mill ambient acts whose sound gets soft, repetitive, and boring—fast. Most ambient music serves as a mood piece; mere sounds to fill up the space between walls or the air next to your ears. Rather than utilizing sounds that will eventually tire and stagnate, Broaddus brings simple beats to life by carefully paying attention to each quality and arranging them in such a perfect manner that one cannot get tired of hearing them. He also avoids falling into the trap of producing overly digitized sounds and maintains an earthy ambience throughout the whole EP.

The first track, “Still Young” lets listeners know immediately that they are listening to something new and unconventional, as their ears are met with strong yet not overpowering drum beats paired together with electronic beats and the eventual “chorus” of repetitive guitar strumming. “Babe” and “Favorite Maze” are the more mellow tracks which echo the style of the first, followed by my personal favorite “Friend [Lover].” “Goodbye Forever” is an appropriate way to the end the album, which eventually fades away and ends with a chorus of crickets.

Relaxing yet stimulating, the best time to listen to Evenings is, in fact, evenings. Take a listen after a long day of work or school; you will be lulled either into a deep meditation or be provided with a soundtrack for productivity.