Solemn Judgement – "Spineless" Track Premier

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Anger is perhaps the most taboo emotion. You’re allowed to be happy, people welcome it. You’re allowed to be sad, people understand that. You’re allowed to be fearful, some people prey on that. But those feelings are all internal. Anger? That’s an outward-facing emotion, and most people shy away from it for that very reason. Anger is destructive, it’s unthinking, it’s ugly… but that makes it all the more vital to get out.

As a result of where anger sits in our emotional landscape, hardcore is one of the most cathartic genres of music. Sure, listening to Elliot Smith when you’re sad scratches a certain itch, but there’s nothing more emotionally-satisfying than listening to some punchy guitars and screamed vocals when you need to vent. It’s the musical embodiment of one of the most dangerous and frowned-upon emotions in our society, and that makes it one of the most important. 

Solemn Judgement is a hardcore band based out of Detroit formed from the ashes of half a dozen different Michigan groups. They’re still in that exciting early stage of a band where they’re frequently putting out singles and EPs, each release providing fans with a slight update on the group’s ever-shifting sound. While Solemn Judgement’s EP from earlier this year ranged from familial spite to self-destructive hatred, their newest track “Spineless” is more of a faceless rage directed outward at any and all oppressors. 

The song begins with a metallic guitar in the left channel that’s soon followed by a distant scream and a series of fast-paced cymbal taps that set the pace for the coming bombardment. From there, the rest of the band launches into a low and slow riff designed to pummel listeners into oblivion. This leads to a fast-paced pit-opening instrumental where the thumping bassline, gnashing guitar, and snappy snare hits synch up, making way for Marissa Ward’s vehement vocals. 

Midway through the song, there’s an instrumental dropout that clears the path for each word to land like a punch to the gut. The lyrics are pure bile; absolute anger spewed out that the listener can easily channel their rage into. Ward yells “you’re scared senseless to face your vices / you’ll judge those for using their voices,” and you begin to get the sense that these were words that couldn’t be held in any longer.

With “Spineless” Solemn Judgement aren’t just airing their own grievances, they’re also providing an outlet for each and every one of their listeners to project their frustrations onto. And that is why hardcore will always be irreplaceable. 

 

Catch Solemn Judgement on the road this winter:

11/15 in Cincinnati @ Bitter Taste Fest
11/18 in Detroit @ Sanctuary
12/5 in Kalamazoo @ Greenhouse
12/6 in Chicago @ Empty Bliss
12/7 in Detroit @ Trumbullplex
12/8 in Akron @ Hive Mind

 

Dogleg Is The Future

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When I first moved to Michigan last September, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Not only had I never been to this side of the country before, but aside from The White Stripes and maybe a few Motown singles, I knew nothing about the music scene here. In the time since l moved to the midwest last fall, I’ve been lucky enough to discover hundreds of amazing local bands and see probably about as many play. 

In a few weeks, I’ll be moving again and I can confidently say the thing I’ll miss the most about Michigan won’t be the Faygo or the coney islands, or even the square pizza. No, the thing I’ll miss the most about Michigan will be Dogleg concerts.

Dogleg is a four-piece rock band based out of Detroit playing a distinct blend of thrashy emo rock. They’re made up of guitarist Alex Stoitsiadis, bassist Chase Macinski, rhythm guitarist Parker Grissom, and drummer Jacob Hanlon. It sounds like a pretty modest setup all things considered, yet each time I see the band live, I walk away convinced that it was the best performance I’ve ever seen.

The first time I saw Dogleg was December of 2018, where they were playing alongside Shortly, Formerly Bodies, and Ness Lake at The Loving Touch. It was a relatively subdued performance from the band, but I enjoyed it enough to drop $10 on a shirt to support them. They also had a CRT TV set up at the merch table where fans could challenge them to a game of Smash Bros, which endeared me to them immediately if only because it was unlike anything I’d ever seen in all my years of concertgoing. They were officially on my radar.

 
 

The second time I saw Dogleg was at Fauxchella III in Bowling Green, Ohio, and that was the performance that turned me into a lifelong fan. 

The band took the stage at 6 PM and played a ferocious set to a rapt audience as the backdrop behind them projected a youtube compilation of anime fights and intro sequences. They blasted through their set hair flailing, drums pounding, and guitar screaming. The pièce de résistance came near the end when Alex paused to perform a handstand in between violent guitar strums only to land it flawlessly and continue playing. 

Maybe it was the anime fight scenes, or perhaps the mixture of Red Bull and pizza fueling me at the time, but in that moment, everything made sense. 

 
 


In the time since that performance, I’ve probably seen the band play at least a dozen times. That’s the benefit of getting into your local music scene, because not only will you discover these cool bands right in your own back yard, but if you like them, they’re probably playing around you all the time. 

Dogleg’s publicly-available music consists of two EP’s from 2016 that honestly don’t quite capture the intensity of their live performances very well. They’re solid releases, but they pale in comparison to the energy and musicianship on display at an actual Dogleg show. I began to think that the true essence of a Dogleg concert may be lighting in a bottle, unable to ever be captured on studio equipment… until today.

This morning, the group released “Fox” off their upcoming debut album Melee due out sometime in 2020 on Triple Crown Records. The song is perfectly indicative of the group’s unparalleled on-stage energy, and probably the closest they’ll ever get to bottling that experience up in a neat and easily-streamable package. The song’s music video (filmed at this year’s twelfth and final Bled Fest) further emphasizes how well the band’s stage presence elevates their music.


Dogleg’s songs are the perfect balance of group chants, crowd-churning riffage, and fast-paced instrumentation that flies by quicker than the listener even has time to comprehend. Their music is pure spectacle, something you have to see to believe. Whether they’re performing to hundreds of people in a packed room at Bled Fest or dozens of people in someone’s basement, each show, the band plays like their lives depend on it.

This is all to say I’ve never seen a band quite like Dogleg, and I feel incredibly thankful to have been able to watch them perform so many times over the past year. I can only hope they’ll continue to tour, and I’ll be able to keep seeing them (even if it’s slightly less frequent going forward) because they’ve been a highlight of my time in the Midwest. If you have the chance to see Dogleg live, do yourself a favor and do not pass it up.

Photo: @dappestdan

Photo: @dappestdan

Hexing – In Tandem | EP Review

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Sometimes it’s the small things in life that resonate with us the most; the little acts of kindness, the unspoken acts of love, and the subconscious actions of others that end up staying with us for years to come. Hexing’s second EP In Tandem is a 20-minute collection of songs built around documenting these moments, encasing them in amber, and holding them up to the light for the world to see. 

Based out of the frigid, lake-adjacent Muskegon, Hexing is a five-piece rock band that blends emo, punk, and the occasional drop of melodic hardcore to a satisfying and emotionally-satiating result. The group’s newest release follows their 2018 EP Temporary and two-track single (fittingly) titled Everything is a Bummer. Seemingly having moved to a more positive mental state, In Tandem finds the group detailing their interpersonal relationships and putting words to the seemingly nondescript moments that end up meaning the world.

In fact, opening track “Car Crash” begins by throwing the listener directly into one of these lived-in moments of adoration. The song itself is a clear-eyed pop-punky track that shifts from emotive harmonies to trashy riffage at a moment’s notice, but the song’s first lines raise the curtains on a scene of confessional weakness. We hear our narrator recall a time when a loved one had to shepherd them home while they sat drunk in the passenger seat and sunk deeper and deeper into self-loathing.

“I got drunk as you drove me home
so I didn’t have to be alone with my thoughts
so maybe I could feel a little less like me
cause the more I think the more I hate me”

In addition to relaying these moments of personal connectivity, the other major through-line of the EP is aging out of a pre-determined mold and into something less defined. Throughout the release, the band finds themselves at a crossroads in life, stuck between their firey teenage punk phase and whatever comes after that. Lyrics like “running off what remains of my teenage fumes and decaying youth, cause I’m just not angry anymore” bottle up the all-too-familiar story of a once-punk teenager who has now reached their mid-twenties/early-thirties and looked around only to realize that they’re the oldest person in the basement.

But this newfound maturation also comes with a sense of happiness, because despite the uncomfortable (and non-negotiable) adjustment to getting older, Hexing still manages to find rays of positivity in the face of what could otherwise be complete collapse. On the goofily-named “Fleetwood Mac Sex Pants,” the band finds themselves adjusting to a more positive outlook on life… or at least a slightly less negative one. It’s a classic emo track in that the silly song name merely serves as a distraction from the surprisingly-mature sentiments on display in the lyrics as the band reiterates, “I’m getting used to feeling okay / it’s unnatural to not hate everything” in their most earnest and Wonder-Years-esque delivery.

Other highlights include the lead single “Swamp Thing,” which boasts hard-hitting screams, a driving drumline, and lyrics delivered through a defiant snarl accentuated by punchy palm-muted guitar riffs. On the opposite end of the tonal spectrum, “Sunday Mornings” builds off an emotive Balance and Composure-like guitar line that works its way up to a melodic and explosive post-rock finish. Throughout In Tandem’s 20 minutes, the band displays a unique ability to mix different subgenres and influences into one fluid presentation that makes them all seem effortless. These technical chops are backed up by the band’s grounded lyricism that any aging punk should easily be able to relate to.

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Growing up means making a lot of changes, not the least of which is figuring out how to adjust to your waning energy, passion, and drive. It’s easy to be an energetic teenager; it’s harder to be an energetic adult. We have more responsibilities, more to lose, and more people that grow to count on us over time. It’s shifting from ‘fuck yeah I’ll stage dive’ to ‘I think I’ll stand in the back tonight.’ It’s getting a good night’s sleep and eating right. That might not sound very punk, but neither is growing up. 

Rocky as they are, these types of changes are ultimately for the best because they’re signs of development and evolution. Getting better doesn’t happen all at once; it’s a long, ongoing, and sometimes painful process of incremental steps in the right direction. 

In Tandem is an album about loosening your grip and finding your place in the world. Obviously, the title and album cover both evoke a certain romantic notion, but the EP itself delves into all the specific ways that a relationship can live, thrive, and sometimes falter. Recognizing the role that people play in our lives is not to be taken lightly, and Hexing has done a masterful job of portraying the complex ways that these relationships exist. Nothing is perfect, and everything is changing, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

A Very Sufjan Christmas is Back

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The following is a post from our sister site A Very Sufjan Christmas.
Follow us at @SufjanChristmas on Twitter or @SufjanChristmas on Instagram to enjoy daily song write-ups this December!

It’s finally November, and that can only mean one thing: Sufjan Season is officially upon us!

This winter, A Very Sufjan Christmas will be returning for another post each day from December first until Christmas Day. It’s going to be the same drill as last year; every post will be penned by a different author who will be discussing a different Sufjan Christmas song. 

There will be sad posts, happy posts, nostalgic posts, long-winded posts, artful posts, and everything in between. Our contributors range from musicians, teachers, producers, and above all else, Sufjan fans. It brings me great honor to be able to share their Christmas spirit with you, and I sincerely hope that you enjoy reading these write-ups as much as I’ve enjoyed organizing them.

We’ve made the site super easy to keep up with. Each new write-up is uploaded directly to our home page (www.sufjanchristmas.com), so you can simply bookmark that URL (maybe even make it your homepage) and then visit it each day of December for a fantastic new write-up!

You can also follow us on Twitter at @SufjanChristmas, on Instagram at @SufjanChristmas, or even on reddit at /u/SufjanChristmas where we’ll be posting daily discussions of each article over at the /r/Sufjan subreddit.

If you’re just too excited to wait for December, you can always read back through last year’s posts here, or browse some of our supplemental reading material for additional Sufjan Christmassy goodness. 

No matter what your holiday looks like, whether you’re spending it alone, with friends, family, loved ones, or pets, we consider ourselves lucky to be even a small part of it. Whether you’re going to be in church, flying back home, or fighting your way through a shopping mall, we hope that this site will provide a small respite from the Christmas Chaos this December. As tiring and hectic as this time of the year may be, we hope that this site will serve as a reminder of the good that the holidays can bring. We hope that this communal showing of Christmas spirit helps you make it to the end of the year, or at the very least, will give you something to read as you avoid weird family members or find yourself stuck in line at the mall.

Once again, I am astonished not only by people’s willingness to contribute to this site and share their stories, but the fact that other people take their time to read what’s posted here warms my heart and fuels my Christmas spirit. I think I speak for everyone on the team when I say that you readers mean the world to us, so thank you in advance for a fantastic holiday season. We’ll see you all in December when our first write-up goes live.

Until then, Peace, Love, and Christmas Trees. 
Love, Taylor and the rest of the A Very Sufjan Christmas Staff.

Invite The Neighbors Podcast Interview

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Ever wondered what my voice sounds like? Ever wanted to know the origins of Swim Into The Sound? Do you want to know what my favorite thing I’ve ever written was? Well, the answers to those questions and more will all be revealed in the newest episode of Invite The Neighbors.

Bryan Porter of In A Daydream invited me on to his DIY podcast to discuss this very blog. We covered the first posts I ever wrote, the (questionable) first concert I was ever paid to review, and why I love doing this despite how much time, effort, and money it consumes.

So please give it a listen, and check out some of the other interviews. Thank you Bryan for the awesome chat, and for being such a gracious host. 

Give the podcast a listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or through this link.