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This week in music from KWLC

Date 11/6/2003 6:00 AM | Topic: Arts & Culture

The Room's Too Cold is better than average emo.

Lindsay Kimball
KWLC Staff

The Early November are obviously not from Iowa. Their name stems from the capricious hot and cold weather of an early November . in New Jersey, which we see in the middle of October. The Early November believe this is also a metaphor for the "calm before the storm," which is seen throughout life, especially in relationships.

A typical emo statement, yes, but The Room's Too Cold is not the typical one-dimensional emo album.

The band's roots are in acoustic music, but they have evolved into a punk rock sound that hasn't abandoned their beginnings by placing just one token acoustic track on their album.

This album comes after two previous EP releases on the popular Drive Thru Records, but it adds strings and different guitar distortions to the already emotionally drenched lyrics to enhance their new songs.

The Room's Too Cold is like one-stop shopping, touching on several genres of music including emo, punk, rock, acoustic, and screamo. There's something for everyone.


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Amalia Anderson
KWLC Staff

David Rogers, from Iowa City, has recorded his first album, Where Songs Collide. Its acoustic presentation has roots in the music of folk greats like Greg Brown and Dave Moore, but also has a youthful pop element that sets it apart.

Where Songs Collide is an album about life. Rogers sings it the way he sees it, and the rhythmic guitar lines keep the lyrics moving. Aside from this, I do question the use of bass; Gordy Axt is skillful, but he adds a smooth and squeaky-clean feel that seems to gnaw at the honesty Rogers is reaching for.

Overall, the recording may sound hollow, but Rogers' album simply tries to get you down to earth, and you can still enjoy it over some coffee (or hot chocolate). Now a plug: he will be playing Marty's this Friday, Nov. 7, at 8:30 p.m. Albums are good, but folk is best live.

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Zach Hawkins
KWLC Staff

I've never really gotten the whole "remix" thing. I've always thought it seemed sort of pointless to ruin a perfectly good song by adding a persistent and monotonous backbeat to make it more "danceable." This has changed, thanks to The Dismemberment Plan. Their latest - and final - release, A People's History of the Dismemberment Plan, has given me some faith in the elusive remix.

A People's History is not your normal remix album. First of all, it's a farewell. The Dismemberment Plan decided to call it quits this past summer, mid-way through the recording of a new album. This left a large body of fans feeling cheated. In response, The Dismemberment Plan decided to bring their fans into the process of producing an album.

Here's what they did: they posted the raw tracks from their entire catalogue of music on their Web site, and encouraged people to download and remix them. In the liner notes of A People's History, the band writes, "The 12 tracks on A People's History of the Dismemberment Plan were mixed by friends, fans, and in some cases, folks who were just too intrigued by the idea of a band inviting such chaos to resist the remix temptation. The rules were simple: use what you find, embellish, edit, and rematerialize as you see fit, and if we like it, we'll put it on the record." Now, in my opinion, that's just cool.

Honestly, in a music world dominated by musicians and business people that work hard to discourage the electronic sharing of music, it's not every day a band not only shares their music, but encourages listeners to change it! The Dismemberment Plan were an awesome indie rock outfit when they were together, and now they have given a whole new meaning to, well, dismembering.

They write, "If someone told us they preferred one of these remixes to our original song, we would be psyched. It would mean that our songs claim a life beyond us, with no strings attached to our faces, our explanations, our excuses." Whether you're a Dismemberment Plan fan, or you've never even heard of them, I suggest you check this out.

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