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The Ergs! "Upstairs/Downstairs", reviewed by joethebone on April 29, 2007
(Views: 773)
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Label: Dirtnap Records
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What keeps NJ's Ergs! just ahead of every other pop-punk band these days is their constantly evolving sound. With last year's "Jersey's Best Prancers" EP, they took their upbeat, pop-based sound and made it a little rougher and dirtier around the edges. They've gone even further in that direction on this, at times recalling bands like Hüsker Dü and the Descendents, and the result is their riskiest and best release to date.
The songwriting is lean, without any fat to be found. Only a handful of tracks break the 2-minute mark, but none ever feel like they fall short or don't reach their potential. As always with The Ergs!, the musicianship is excellent and very tight without ever stepping on the melodies that are the heart of the songs. There are even a couple musical diversions, most notably the title track and the full-on country rock of "Stinking of Whiskey Blues." Sequenced in between the (relatively) harder "Girls of the Market Square" and the hook-filled (and Music Man/Harvey Danger referencing) "Trouble in River City", "Whiskey" could possibly wreck the flow and feel of the record, but rather just adds to it. It sounds like an extension of what they were exploring on their "Cotton Pickin' Minute" EP, and it shows Mikey Ergs's true versatility as a songwriter.
One aspect of the band's writing that's grown immeasurably is their attention to arrangement and dynamics. One perfect example is in "See Him Again," which seems at the start to be a fairly basic pop tune. By the end, however, they've built the tension subtly and kick the intensity up at just the right moment before the finish to bring the song to a whole other level. "Books About Miles Davis" could've remained a standard guitar/vocals-only song that doesn't go much of anywhere in the hands of a lesser band. Rather than settle for that, The Ergs! know just how to place a couple short measures of the full band stepping in, giving the song exactly what it needs to be great.
Lyrically, the record deals mostly with relationships failing and the inevitability of growing up. The relationship songs seem to be coming from a different, more bitter place than on the last LP. "Your Cheated Heart" chides someone who claims to be too hurt to keep trusting, "Trouble in River City" wishes the girl would just get the hell away for once, and "See Him Again" is a perfect picture of a guy who's not getting much out of a doomed relationship. All of this adds to an underlying tension throughout the record, which explodes in the 18-minute title track at the end.
"Upstairs/Downstairs" starts out reminiscent of the Pixies, with the bass and drums keeping a mid-tempo rhythm for the guitar riff to come in over. After a short batch of lyrics, around the 2-minute mark, the band starts to build up a noise jam over the constantly repeated words of the title. They slowly take apart the melody of the song, releasing all the tension and frustration that had been accumulating throughout the LP. By the last few minutes, only 2 guitars remain, one barely holding on to the song's melody while the other flails and feeds back. It's a noise catharsis that brings to mind "Reoccuring Dream" from Hüsker Dü's masterpiece "Zen Arcade." It's a risky move for a band like theirs, but they pull it off extremely well. There's no other way I can imagine this record ending. Not every song on the album is the best thing they've written, but the great ones are, without a doubt, their absolute best work yet. Most importantly, they all flow together to be greater than the sum of their parts. I can't wait to hear what they do next. |
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