||| MDRF001 THE BEATINGS: ITALIANO |
October 2008 | 44:48 | Full Length CD Listen to streaming tracks on our Media page or on Get Help's Myspace page.
Recorded by Chris Pace and Ted Wilson at Smoke and Mirrors, Brooklyn NY. Additional recording by George Vitray.
Skalicky and Ingenthron, who write and record in New York, take turns on lead vocals. Skalicky unabashedly channels Joy Division's Ian Curtis (or Interpol's Paul Banks), and for some listeners, that might be too much of a turnoff to get through the whole album. But Skalicky's time at the mic fuels the album's most compelling and memorable moments. The End of the New Country opens on a somber note with "Traveler's Shave Kit." Plaintive guitar strums, gentle rhythms, a little slide guitar and mellotron set an appropriate tone for an album that scarcely cracks a smile over the course of 15 tracks. The album's title cut, like much of the CD, is full of resignation, as Skalicky sings about a world on the brink of collapse, with mobbed streets lined by burning buildings. "I think we've reached the end of the new country," he sings. "And I think we know the rest of its history." It's grim, to be sure. But it could also signal a new beginning: By the end of the album, with the dramatic squalls of feedback on the closer "Growing Circles," the band seems to say that everything is going to be all right. "I am searching in growing circles," Skalicky sings. "And I will find you, I am certain."
Despite its darkness, The End of the New Country isn't a downer, though it's undeniably brooding and introspective. But there's enough inspired beauty in the lyrics — and consistently impressive guitar work — to make the music uplifting at times.
"The release of New York duo Get Help's solid debut is as good an occasion as any to give thanks for the stalwart musicians out there who make dependable indie rock. Not dancepunk, not nu-rave, not electroclash, not...well, you get the picture. There are now countless bands, and many of them chase countless, cycling trends. Thankfully there are still plenty of acts making great music without aping the latest tight-legged or baggy-arsed hype-riders." One doesn't have to read the promotional kit to know these guys at one point in their life discovered R.E.M.'s early stuff. Not the "Shiny Happy..." or "Stand" material, but "Murmur" and that other awesome shit. Get Help brings it forward with this rebirth of the cool, low-key, new indie sound. They have successfully captured a cloudy Sunday's DNA and put it to wax. Images that come to mind are the Fall season, and the nostalgia of playing in the snow with an ex that has decided you are no longer a necessity. It also paints a picture of someone laying on a bed, staring at the ceiling for hours on end. Images that don't come to mind include: Waterpark fun, a zero-to-hero montage in a clothing store trying on all different outfits. Possible Diagnosis: This is a good soundtrack to reflect on your life and see that even though it's heading to shit, there is still hope that it won't stink as much as everyone says it does/will. Fuck your career plans and pick up a guitar, a pencil, or a paintbrush and do what you have to, just get the fuck out of that cubicle or conference room.
Recomendation::
Hypnotic, like the river stream. This could be a great soundtrack to a movie about anxiety, self-destruction, self-loathing, self-pity, failure and all the great emotions that one feels today when one looks at the future through pessimistic eyes.
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