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by Dave Kusterer
We live in a special time, my friends.
Previously unimagined levels of dancefloor activity are being
reached by, say it with me, white kids. The Rapture brought
it to the forefront, making it okay to be an indie rock disco
band. !!! and O.U.T.H.U.D. put out club records for hipsters,
and the hipsters bought them. More recently prog rock has
been rearing its head again, gaining enough cache that Coheed
and Cambria can refer to themselves as prog rockers and sell
records to 13 year old Warped Tourgoers. |
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Modus hasn’t found its
voice on its debut 5-song EP, but I suspect that when they do
it’ll most clearly resemble the first track on the record,
“Soul Fascist.” The band lays down some clean funk
while singer Jeff Aderman belts out a Big Rock vocal about “a
megalomaniac leader bent on the submission of others”
(this according to the band’s website). It’s not
as bad as it sounds--the lyrics are unobtrusive and the music
should get the argyles hoppin’. |
The next track, “Eraser,” throws a little more angst
into the mix and suffers as a result. The rhythm section is
still game but it can’t compete with the crashing guitars
and generic lyric. “Slice of Life” is standard AOR
fodder, standing out only because it’s so ordinary and
the band is far more adventurous elsewhere. Modus picks it up
again with the Floyd-inspired “No Voices.” The closer,
“The Worm Turns,” starts well enough with some of
Aderman’s best vocals before abruptly shifting into faux
metal complete with wanky guitar. The song plays out like some
of the Mars Volta’s more self-indulgent tracks, moving
between fragments of song and sound before fading into bleeps
and blips.
Modus is riding the wave of hipster dance music, but there’re
moments on this record that tip their hand. The epic guitar
solos, the obvious nods to Pink Floyd, the fact that their drummer
is credited with playing drums and triggers—Modus is a
Trojan Horse. Are people ready for a band that could drop indiedance’s
Tarkus? |
| Streets
of Mars EP
by Dave Kusterer
At one point late in Family Guy’s
magnificent run, Brian the dog and Stewie the baby find themselves
stranded in some remote Middle Eastern desert. As they enjoy
breakfast at a Comfort Inn, a father berates his son nearby
for “blasting that 1980s American rock ‘n’
roll music that we got here last week.”
The cultural exchange seems to have just netted the Swedish
nation with mid-90s alternapop. How else could you explain
a band like Streets of Mars? They’re not bad so much
as massively inessential. None of these tracks would seem
out of place soundtracking an Ethan Hawke movie. The slick-as-Crisco
production, the sensitive-dude vocals. If these guys had been
born 10 years earlier and in Illinois they’d have been
Dog’s Eye View. |
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