Thursday, April 1, 2010

We're Just Being Who We Are

Okay, flashback to summer time 2007. Cue Wayne’s World hand motions. Doodlidoo, doodlidoo, doodlidoo.

So at this time I had two main musical genres that I listened to. Ska, which had been my mainstay for about 4 years, and melodic hardcore, Set Your Goals, No Trigger, Strike Anywhere, Etc. Out of all the stuff I listened to, these two seemed to be the most common.

Okay, another flashback now, to the summer before. Band added me to myspace called “We Are The Union”. They had a sort of typical ska-punk sound, heavy influence from Big D and the Kids Table and the Arrogant Sons of Bitches. Not to say they were bad, I totally enjoyed their sound, but back then they were more of a typical ska/punk band.

Alright once more, back to summer ’07. The band posed a myspace bulletin that their new album would be out soon and they had a new track up. It also mentioned an evolution in their sound.

They weren’t kidding.

They combined the two aforementioned styles seamlessly. The songs had fast poppy sing-along parts that lead into dancey ska parts that lead into more hardcore like breakdowns. Needless to say, I thought it was absolutely fucking awesome. It was one of those rare cases where a band’s sound is just so new and so fresh. The band often gets described as “Set Your Goals meets Less Than Jake”, which is apt on a general scale, but there is way more to it than that. Their lyrics are absolutely great, they have a song that references Say Anything (the movie of course, doofus) in the best way possible and put on an absolutely gnarly live show.

So of course I wanted the album but, as always, my state of being a poor university student with no credit card makes it hard for me to buy music when the band hasn’t toured in my area and aren’t on a major (and therefore aren't carried in the chain stores, which are essentially my only outlet of buying music in my small college town) so I was kind of boned. Then one day they put the album up for free. Fucking rad! Obviously I downloaded it right away and lost my shit over how good it was. To me at least, it was one of those albums that just hits you in a special way. Just right away, you know it’s going to be one of your favourites.

Since then it’s been in constant rotation and is definitely one of my favourite records ever. Since they put out that album they signed to Paper and Plastick and released an EP. No surprise, it ruled in tons of ways. They announced they were recording last year so I was excited for the album to come. It took a long time, but it’s finally here.

Now I am going to be honest, I wasn’t hoping for anything drastic on this record. Maybe a bigger breakdown on one song and huge face melter on another (Ricky is a huge shredder after all). My expectations were moronic. The band has stepped up their game in a huge way. This record is like their last one steroids. First of all, since the last album they got a new drummer and another guitar player. Both bring tons to the new album. The drumming is tight and fast as fuck, which is my ideal. The addition of a second guitar allows for a lot more elements and melody to be added. It’s like every member got a lot better at what they do and they mish-mashed all that skill into one fucking huge juggernaut of melodic-pop-punk-hardcore-ska musical gnar.

I cannot recommend this band enough. I am being completely honest when I say they are the best band making music right now. Not to say they are my favourite band ever, (did you think Less Than Jake would get dethroned that easily, COME ON (in Gob Bluth voice)) but I think out of all the bands I listen to, these guys are the most on top of their game and just at their pinnacle.

Here’s my favourite tune by them:

You can also stream the whole new record here:

www.absolutepunk.net/wearetheunion

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