Labels: rok lok – sncl
Review by: Joe Callaghan
Two bands. A track each. Sharing the punk rock genre but each side acting as an emotional ying-yang. The split is blighted by its shortness as it teases you with only a few minutes on each flip of the record, so it urges you to listen closely from start to finish. I opted for Halftime Parade’s offerings first, and maybe its for the best that I did. Quickly out of the starting blocks, it chimes and chirps the bleakest of warbling with gritty, sloppy pop undertones. It projects contentment via melody, but breaks hearts vocally. Hacksaw instrumentation bouncing off dustbin drums captured at a bearable eminence, like the most recent Dillinger Four record, with the aesthetic value of the early 90’s pop punk bands that Jeff Ott and Aaron Cometbus were in and out of every other week. Righteous.
Marshall Teller turn down the tempo, along with everything else. It’s morose, glum, like a moody Leatherface or a sludgy, austere Husker Du. Marshall Teller feel like its raining outside. Marshall Teller feel like those winter weekdays and the sense of disappointment of arriving to and leaving from work in bitter cold darkness. Marshall Teller are an audible equivalent of Boxing Day. Christmas is over, you’re back at work in less than 24 hours and you don’t have any justification to be a gluttonous, drunken slob any longer. It sulks and grumbles as it walks unintentionally through puddles. Incoherent structure, subtle discordance and gut wrenching rasps, like if you could begin to imagine what an exact opposite of The Ergs would sound like. I”ve made that sound like an absolute nightmare, but that couldn’t be any further from the point. It delivers everything you would expect from a disgruntled, grumpy punk band. Solid.