Renting? Music 6 - The Capes and The Dead 60s
Part 1 - Overview and First Bands
Part 2 - The Pixies and Chvrches
Part 3 - Parliament and Metallica
Part 4 - The Shins and Muse
Part 5 - Mustache! and 3 Minute Hero
Part 6 - The Capes and The Dead 60s
Continuing the trend of "music I played while doing college radio", we're reaching into a sort of pop rock band that could have their sound compared to The Pillows and an alt rock band some of you may have heard, if you've ever played Burnout Revenge.
The Capes - Hello
The first of our albums released in 2005, Hello kicks off with Mexican Broads, and the Brit Pop Rock comes through pretty quick. Veering between exceedingly clean guitar tones to distorted chords with some... I want to describe them as "airy" vocals but they're just upper register tenor style that still has some "weight"? that keeps it from being airy. Lots of vocal harmonizing during choruses. Super Girls though is a banger of a track. Starts off with this descending riff that's then counterpointed by a higher pitched oscillating tone. I like the simple bass in this, but it just sort of fills the empty space between the vocal bars well. The chorus goes to an almost flat, sung delivery. Like each line is the same note tone wise, but it's accompanied by other members signing and harmonizing with it, either in the similar tone or on the octave. This might be my favorite track from the album. Jumping ahead two tracks, Carly is another fun romp that just sounds really nice to me. The vocals pack enough punch that makes them fun to sing, and the light and slightly distorted guitar and the keyboard sound good and make a really interesting sound behind the singing. I think that last sentence sums up my feelings on a lot of the album, I suppose. Specific shout outs to First Base and Tightly Wound for being prior favorites among the album that fit that description.
Francophile has a sci-fi bend to the tone which an interesting change of pace from the prior five tracks. Shinjuku Hi 5 starts off iffy, but it then settles back into the light pop rock style we've heard for a bunch of the album so far, and the chorus has a bunch of held notes that travel up and down the scale which is fun. Comet Tails is notable for me because the opening, once the music hits, was a backing track for some of our pre-recorded ads or bumpers. Stately Homes is a weaker track but I don't know why I feel that way. It just doesn't have It. Gimmie was another track used for bumpers/ad backing music. Someone was on something when they were recording those huh. It's Fine. Sun Roof as a wrap to the album is almost a come-down sort of song. Very mellow by comparison, with some simple vocalizing and harmonizing instead of regular lyrics and singing.
The Dead 60s - The Dead 60s
The albums starts off strong with their most well known track Riot Radio, the track from Burnout Revenge. It was fun to see that the song show up in that game since I picked up Burnout Revenge later in the school year, after I had already heard of them via the station's library. A good bouncy track. Also fun fact, Riot Radio is a track I tried to chart for the knockoff of Guitar Hero "Frets on Fire" back in like, 2008. This band is really in that sing-talking style for some of the tracks, I suppose. That can be a putoff at times, but sometimes it works well. A Different Age, the second track has a bit of a surfy beat to the guitar, as the bassline runs the same riff throughout most of the song. I guess I can describe them a little as surf rock-y, but if you ran like... The Arctic Monkeys through a Surf Rock filter? Maybe this analogy sucks. They like their guitar effects that can sound almost comical. Putting a heavy warble effect on a single note on the lead guitar as the rhythm plays a very simple chord on the beat. That's basically the verse format for Train to Nowhere.
Red Light has a bit of a seediness to it. Which is then followed up by 70s-ass keyboard in We Get Low, where the guitar reminds me of brass-less... evil ska. Look I'm just saying words I don't know how to describe shit for shit, ok. OK, GOOD. GREAT. The next track Ghostface Killer is ALSO Evil Ska. Sure fuck it! We get back to more regular sound with Loaded Gun, which sounds more like the first tracks of the album, with the sparse lead guitar, but often pairing it with some heavy sort of effect, as the bass and rhythm carry the track until the chorus and solo. Soul Survivor is an instrumental track that is actually pretty groovy. If you don't care for their musical stylings to this point though, it's an easy skip. Nationwide has more of the seediness that you hear throughout the album. I think it's the how muted everything is just makes it feel like the music is this slate gray color with splashes of color to highlight and break it up. Like a harmonica in this track. Then we contrast this with a comparatively frenetic Horizontal that's next that feels like it's more on the surf-y side of things. But it still feels aligned with the other tracks? It's like they developed a sound that is a sliding scale of "surf" to "smokey dive bar" that they just go "ok where does this track fall on the spectrum". I will say, the final track on the album, You're not the Law is one of my, probably top 3 tracks on the album? It has a really good sound to it, and the distortion they put on the keyboard during certain parts gives it a weird texture that's really interesting.
... they described themselves as Ska Punk so I guess I'm not saying anything outside the range of expectations. Band disbanded in 2008. ONE OF THE MEMBERS WORKS AT SPOTIFY AS A MUSIC INDUSTRY EXECUTIVE????
Alright, ranking time. I still like parts of these albums. The highs on Hello are as-high or maybe higher than The Dead 60s but I think the lowers are way lower too. I felt more compelled to skip one of the Capes' tracks than The Dead 60s'.
- Cassette Beasts OST - Joel Baylis (0)
- Bleed Out - The Mountain Goats (0)
- ELO Greatest Hits - ELO (0)
- Every Open Eye - Chvrches (0)
- Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Red Hot Chili Peppers (0)
- Signals - Rush (0)
- Will of the People - Muse (0)
- Chocolate City - Parliament (0)
- The Dead 60s - The Dead 60s
- Superunknown - Soundgarden (0)
- Master of Puppets - Metallica (+1)
- Fragile - Yes (-3)
- Operation Brown Star - 3 Minute Hero (-2)
- Hello - The Capes
- Best of Big Bands - Various Artists (-2)
- Babes Say the Hottest Things - Mustache! (-2)
- Combat Rock - The Clash (-1)
- Bossanova - The Pixies (-3)
- Aurora Borealis - Cloud Cult (-2)
- Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins (-2)
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