The Kite-Eating Tree
method: fail, repeat…
Suburban Home
The Kite-Eating Tree wear their influences on their sleeve for all to see. Equal parts of Jawbox, Braid, No Knife and Drive Like Jehu come from all directions to splat into a lovely stew of angular, rockin’ post-punk that the kids will love.
More than any other band, though, the songs on method: fail, repeat… sound like a pre-_For Your Own Special Sweetheart_ Jawbox with No Knife’s vocalist. While somewhat angular and mathy, the songs are mostly straightforward with only occasional guitar weirdness and dissonance. The drums are proficient and well played, but they are a bit low in the mix, making the overall feel of the album less powerful. The bass guitar is mixed fairly high, giving the record a bit of meat and thickness. The vocalist has the standard mid-to-late 1990s emo vocal style (e.g. old Braid); he’s pretty good, but is not memorable.
Had this come out in the late 1990s, I would have probably ignored it; being that most bands have abandoned angular math emo in 2004, I actually find this album more appealing. It sounds fresh in today’s post-punk climate, and there’s an indescribable “something” that makes these songs special. I can’t explain it, and I don’t know why, but I’m sure I’ll be listening to this record for quite some time. And like my old Jawbox records, I will revisit method: fail, repeat… from time to time.
Suburban Home Records: http://www.suburbanhomerecords.com/
