TwoMinutesHate – 2249 Days
Genre: Skate Punk, Punk, Pop Punk
TwoMinutesHate are a rare bunch. They make the kind of music that can be best described as art-pop-punk, two things that ought to be diametrically opposed to each other.
Do college professors listen to pop-punk music? Do they unwind with a fresh dose of Blink-182 or Machine Gun Kelly after a long day of teaching? They’re smart. And, well, Tom DeLonge sounds like a man who buys books on the sole criteria of how many alien drawings are featured on the cover.
But then again, pop-punk can be awfully fun, and college professors like to enjoy themselves as well. Furthermore, if you peel off the layers and layers of three-chord complexity of the genre, it’s still rock n’ roll. And art students have always liked to get involved in rock n’ roll. You just have to believe that there’s a connection here.
TwoMinutesHate sound as fun as can be on first hearing “2249 Days.” But they are also eccentric and anxiety-ridden. They also know how to play, something that has to be carefully disguised for this kind of style. All of these elements come together to form a different blend of mall-punk intellectuals who don’t wanna take themselves too seriously.
Original Self – Dream of the Endless
Similar artists: Kendrick Lamar, Deftones, Circa Survive, Smile Empty Soul, Nirvana
Genre: Alternative Metal, Shoegaze
Original Self are ambitious artists with a love for modern radio. Their mission is to explore how modern trends can be fitted to their artistic vision.
It’s easy to lose hope. That applies to any aspect of life. A less vital, but, still, important area where hope is dwindling refers to music. It’s become customary to compare the music charts from over 50 years ago with modern Top 40 radio and bemoan the situation in which we find ourselves. And, sure, deciding that we’re on a path opposed to evolution is not entirely unfair.
The fact, however, is that music isn’t made in the same way as it was in the 1970s. If it hadn’t changed, we ought to worry. Not even the tools used for making music are the same. Genres blend together in a much more seamless way. And everyone has access to a much wider variety of sounds. What are we going to do with all of that?
Original Self’s “Dream of the Endless” is a fascinating song because it arrives at an alternative-metal sound as if the only things it had to draw from are modern influences. It incorporates trendy guitar-rock and rap elements, and a daring production. And, most importantly, it blends them together in a way that sounds seamless, something that few modern experimentalists manage to do.
If inventiveness is something that excites you, then you might want to keep an ear out for Original Self moving forward.
