Stunt Drummer – Break
Similar artists: Meat Puppets, Nirvana
Genre: 90s Rock, Alternative Rock
Thousands of songs are written, and thousands more are released every single day. They make use of every musical genre imaginable, all types of instruments and modern technology. You’d think that with such a variety, all of the formulas meant to impress us would have been utilized. You’d think that there would be no reason to try any more.
But any dedicated listener of popular music knows that this is not the case. Yes, the same stories get told over and over again. This is, however, because they feel new to us, and all of us need them told back to us. Rock music, in particular, has a knack for taking pieces that have been used in the construction of other tunes and arranging them in innovative ways.
Stunt Drummer’s “Break” is a stunning song because of just how little meat it has left on the bones. The instrumentation is sparse, the arrangement recalls acoustic grunge, and the vocals are delivered over lo-fi production. Yet, against all of these things that ought to work against it, the song is stunning. As it turns out, when writing a rock song, you roll the dice and sometimes hit the mark just right.
Strange Creature – Smoke and Mirrors
Similar artists: Bad Suns, Arctic Monkeys, Turnstile
Genre: Pop Rock, Math Rock, Alternative Rock
Modern rock music is a lot like a famous sports organization that has gone into disarray or an esteemed movie franchise that has been forced to churn out B-movie productions to pay the pills. Yes, everyone knows that the big bucks aren’t here. Still, the brightest, most creative musicians tend to end up representing it.
You’d think that they’d want more for themselves. Fame, fortune and mass adulation are nothing to sneeze at. When glancing at the charts, it’s easy to get an idea of what type of musicians receive all of those things. The fact, however, is that few genres offer as much room for personal expression as rock music does.
Strange Creature’s “Smoke and Mirrors” is an artsy indie-rock proposition that shares as much with the trendy festival bands of the present as it does with groups like Incubus. The instrumental parts are well crafted and show the strong interplay between the trio of musicians. And the strong tenor vocals float seamlessly across it all. You get the idea that these folks could’ve been producing lo-fi study beats instead, but that just wouldn’t have allowed them to really tell their story.
