Labels: Count Your Lucky Stars – Ezes Code – Hansei – Internationale – Live Together Die Alone – Odebygd
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Let’s make a List! List! Ex-Life At These Speeds. Current a couple of guys who post on the C-Z forums. Emo band. They have one song with a name. It is called “Chavez”. Their other songs are “1.3”, “1.1”, “1.4”, “1.5” and “1.2”. Perhaps incremental versions of each other, therefore “1.5” should (should) be the best. Anyways. List play emo, it’s classic emo. Mid 90s as fuck. Shirt tugging grooves, the stuff to make you rock back and forth in your chair, or your heels if you’re at the gig, that sort of thing. They get Chavez out of the way, it’s a token instrumental. Then we’re into the songs, starting with “1.3” where the guy is all doing the emo vocal thing. WILD. The first song kind of reminds me of early Rye Coalition, when they were emo, before they got into AC/DC, or whatever it was. “1.1” is better than “1.3” so we’re going to have to get the incremental improvement theory, this one is all spoken vocals under super emo guitars, very Moss Icon before it gets a little over the top in the good ole 90s fashion at the end. Either way, I’m down. The other songs follow similar formats, leaving us with a solid side of sobbing. List haven’t really added much to the genre here but I doubt that was the intention.
Perfect Future keep making records, and continue to be any good. The band they bring most to mind on this (slightly muddy) recording is Kolya, what with the urgent spoken vocals and the contrasting, under control guitar that sways pleasantly. There are momentary noisy outbursts that help take the music in different directions, but Perfect Future tend to keep things from getting out of hand, which meets my tastes rather nicely. However, I am certainly not sure what they are up to on “The Big Rad Wolf” which has elements of post rock, youth crew, pop punk, and cheesey metal. Erm… that’s kind of an aberration though, and the other stuff makes up for it.
This is a nice pairing of bands, they work well together, having enough in common as well as plenty to differentiate them. Whilst not one of those staggering “must own” records, it’s still worth checking out if you’re into the style. Kind of the equivalent of the Wallside / Shag Van Club split 12″ for 2011.