HIS & HER VANITIES – The Mighty Lunge

(2009   Science of Sound)

When Ricky and Terrin Riemer had their second child in 2004, the music of His & Her Vanities was put on hold. But they and their studio/label Science of Sound  barely took a break, as they began to take bands such as Sleeping in the Aviary (and their various incarnations) and Pale Young Gentlemen under their wings. They must have had some opportunity, however, to take a good look around, internalizing all the events taking place in the world at large. The Mighty Lunge is a huge welcome-back for the band, although it contains only eight tracks and clocks in at just under thirty minutes. But that’s enough time to make plenty of observations and, if you could sum up what’s going on lyrically in one statement, it might be this: This place is a mess. Even the CD’s cover is unsettling; with its nightmarish image of the world giving way as we try to cling to survival.

Ricky’s angular, interlocking guitar lines are still the main musical feature here. There are no keyboards and, with the addition of Transformer Lootbag drummer Matt Abplanalp (Abplanalp plays guitar with H&HV in performance only), what you hear is pretty much what you’ll get live. That’s not to say that there isn’t any savvy production going on. His & Her Vanities, and Ricky in particular, are quite sonically sophisticated, adding layers of instrumentation and vocals and building the tunes into glorious cacophony. Guitars relentlessly down-stroke in quarter-notes while the vocal lines are drawn out over the top. Though the band has been compared to Devo in the past, The Mighty Lunge sounds much more like the Strokes or Flaming Lips.

One song in particular illustrates the themes of psychological warfare, circular moods, paralysis and confusion that are reinforced throughout. “Fragments” churns along in the band’s familiar, self-described post-punk/pop-rock style. It’s hard to swallow everything / Without it taking over me is typical of the observations made throughout the album. Everywhere I turn there’s something / With broken parts underneath… / And if I lose my sense / I will be left in fragments. These words could apply to the warrior on the battlefield as well as the civilian at home, trying to make sense of what’s going down.

“Hits Like Hail” is another highlight: It hits like hail / Driven farther than a nail / Devoured.. / You can’t cut strings / When you know you’re gonna sink.

“What it Is” brings the Flaming Lips to mind most strikingly, building to a rousing climax. Here, There is nothing left to contemplate / Nothing left to shatter. It’s not devolution, but the feeling that we’re getting the constant runaround, so, why change fuses? as the band sings in “Fuses.” Or consider the confusion portrayed in “New Designs:  The weight that hides behind the brace / It keeps us all in place / Misleads and makes you think that it’s alright… / But no it’s not. The band has really ratcheted up the lyrical content here and it pays off big time.

The real trick is how they make all of this bleakness so toe-tappingly fun. The music percolates and the melodies impart an uplifting optimism. The inside sleeve is adorned with innocuous drawings of a dragon and robot (courtesy of each of the Riemers’ two kids) and there is a sense of innocence that somehow pokes through the giant mess of a situation that we’ve so obviously gotten into. Maybe it’s summed up best in “Wait it Out.” Underneath the sunlight there is darkness / Underneath the darkness there is sunlight. If we’re hostages to the world’s authoritarian whims and systematic cycles, maybe we can wait it out until the next glimmer of sunshine gives us that slim feeling of hope. By pointing out the futility in the status quo, The Mighty Lunge makes a strong case for resolving that the cycle must be broken .

Drawing by Izik Riemer

SLEEPING IN THE AVIARY – Oh, This Old Thing?

(2007    Science of Sound)

I’ll admit it, I was just the tiniest bit disappointed on my first listen to Sleeping in the Aviary’s debut CD Oh, This Old Thing?  I’ve always been a partial to their well-mannered Dr. Jekyll acoustic incarnation as opposed to their untamed Mr. Hyde screamo side, and the 23 minutes of this disc definitely lean more toward Mr. Hyde.  The disappointment was short-lived; after a couple listens their ridiculously catchy tunes have taken up permanent residence in my head.  And though the surprisingly smart lyrics may not be immediately obvious, they are definitely here.  Despite Elliott Kozel spitting the words out as if they taste bad, every clever line is discernible.  Even so, the lyrics are included in a 16 page booklet that accompanies the disc, part of a slick digipak case illustrated with Kozel’s art.

His troubling yet intriguing artwork matches well the subject matter of the songs.  Like a black and white primitive Picasso caught between the blue period and his descent into Cubism, Kozel draws people haunted by ghosts of despair and addiction, something the characters in these songs know well.  “Hear your trembling too loud/ Filling in the dead space/ I know all your false alarms/ Now they’re sleeping in my place,” he discloses in the strutting “Lanugo,” a brash chunk of Libertine-style rock boosted by trombone and “ooh-ooh” and “bop bop” backing vocals.    “Drug Suitcase” brings a Razorlight urgency to its confessional chorus of “Oh your body’s nice but your mind is a joke/ I’m sleeping in your clothes for the third night in a row/ You love other boys because I do.” 

As much as the Aviary boys sometimes recall those British rock bands and their American counterpart the Strokes, they separate themselves with an urgency and primal energy absent from other bands.  It may be their authentic DIY sound or it may be the brevity of the songs, only four break the two minute barrier, screamer “Maureen” only 33 seconds and opener “Face Lift Floats” a surprising 48.  Like many of their songs, the latter is so lyrically packed as to seem much, much bigger.  The terrific rhythm section behind the guitar, drummer Michael Sienkowski (formerly of the Eyebeams) and bassist Phil Mahlstadt, also play a large part in making these songs so remarkable.