Wed January 25 2006
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NYC indie-rockers return to make a racket at BAR
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By: Nick R. Scalia
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Staff Writer
| 01/25/2006 |
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"It's typically a show that requires earplugs," enthuses Up the Empire
drummer Ben Lord, speaking of his Brooklyn-based quartet's
attention-grabbing live act.
Bassist Dan Hewins quickly agrees. "Ben's a really loud drummer, so we
tend to be kind of loud, too - there's a lot of energy there."
There's a lot of melody, too, something that you might not expect from
a band that's so frequently described as a "noise-rock" act - and from
New York, to boot. But while that tag might connote the kind of
cooler-than-thou melodic obfuscation of bands like Liars, there's none
of that pretentiousness in Up the Empire's sound whatsoever. In fact,
you can pretty easily hum all three songs on their latest effort, an
untitled 2005 limited-release EP (which you can hear online at
www.uptheempire.com) that wraps a trio of very catchy tunes in a crispy
shell of distortion, feedback, and cranked-up, insistent bass.
That balance, says Hewins, is
the core of what Up the Empire is all about. "We're giving a lot of
focus toward vocals and melodies," he explains. "The noise comes in
more like a textural kind of thing." But, according to Lord, it's still
an integral part of the band's sound, no matter how poppy the songs
get. "It's definitely not an afterthought. A lot of times we'll
actually start working with something that's just a noise part, and
[the melody] evolves from the various layers that are happening there."
"The thing that I've personally wanted to try to achieve is sort
of, if you took Sonic Youth and were able to throw them into the
pop world full-on," he continues, and the comparison is apt -
you can hear the jagged guitar sound of those avant-rock giants
cutting its way across Up the Empire's songs, along with a bit
of My Bloody Valentine-ish shoegazer haze (especially on the stellar
Starfuck Me, perhaps this band's catchiest song so far) and the
grungy melodicism of Dinosaur Jr.
And though it's true that
all of those bands peaked in the late 80s/early 90s, these guys, like
their kindred spirits in Deerhoof - whose producer, Jay Pellicci, they
worked with on several tracks - manage to bring them together into a
very now-sounding whole.
The band has been around in various
incarnations for a while, originally formed by Lord and guitarist Chris
Renn back in 1998 as a Louisville, Ky combo called Kilowatthours. The
pair went through a revolving cast of additional members until the
lineup eventually firmed up with the addition of Hewins in 2002 and
guitarist Doug Keith in 2004. Then came the name change, which took a
bit of brainstorming to figure out - the one they eventually went with
is also the title of a Holly Golightly album, but Hewins admits that
most of the band didn't even realize that when they picked it.
Lord describes Up the Empire as "probably twenty times more aggressive"
than Kilowatthours, whose songs traded more in quiet tension than
outright sonic bombast - except that, at their live shows, they usually
ended up transforming their mellower material into loud, explosive rock
performances. These days, though, "we're finally doing on record what
Kilowatthours was doing live," the drummer says.
And with the
solidified lineup also came one of the other unique aspects of Up the
Empire's sound - the fact that everybody but the drummer sings. While
Renn had handled vocal duties almost exclusively before, "we realized
that Dan had a great voice, and eventually he started taking more lead
vocals," says Lord. Eventually Keith (whose voice, the drummer says,
has "a great Dinosaur Jr. quality") started contributing vocals, too,
and these days it's roughly an equal-thirds split between him, Hewins,
and Renn.
It's likely that vocal dynamic will especially come
into play on Up the Empire's newest material, which they just finished
recording for a full-length album due later this year. Hewins says the
album will take things in an even more upbeat, catchy, "kind of
danceable" direction, while Lord calls it "crunchy and driving."
You'll be able to decide for yourself this week, as some of that stuff
will likely be on the bill as the band heads to New Haven on Sunday -
returning to BAR after playing a Sunday night gig last year with Ume.
This time, they're reuniting with old friends Calla, who Lord says they
last shared a stage with two years ago in Dallas. And just as that
band, which put out its critically-acclaimed 2005 album Collisions on
the respected Beggars Banquet label, has come a long way since the two
last crossed paths, it seems like Up the Empire will be hitting similar
heights in the near future, too.
So catch them now while you can, but screw the earplugs - this band is worth the hearing loss.
Hear it Live
Calla and Up the Empire
Sunday, Jan. 29
9 p.m., no cover
BAR
254 Crown St., New Haven
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©Play :: New Haven's Arts & Entertainment Weekly. 2006
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