State Of The Union: Let's Talk About Indiana

Many years ago, my mother took a long journey through the Midwest before coming to the East Coast, and I'm following that adventure musically, beginning this week in Indiana.

Authors
I love good metalcore. This is good metalcore. There's the expected drop tuning and back and forth between clean and unclean vocals, but there's also a poetic nature to Authors, an exposure of the tandem nature of slam poetry and punk rock. Because Authors make metalcore that is punk rock. They take their genre work to the next level by pulling in unexpected moments of direct contact with the listener, and this ensures that you'll stay in the palm of their hands.

Brought By Giants

Let's start with the piano intro in "A Safer Place," and talk about haunting. There's a chasm between scary and haunting, and where some post hardcore bands like to go for the former, Brought By Giants capture the latter, ensuring that their music sticks with you. Instead of simply being the demon that chases after you, Brought By Giants becomes the ghost in the shadows that follows you silently home.


Sudden Suspension

The visuals for Sudden Suspension's album Second Place is like a sequel to Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American, and the classic emo nods serve somewhat the same idea. And yeah, there's the cliche desire to leave this town, but there's the skill and musicality to back it up. It's emo music you can dance happily to, not a pity party but a rallying cry.


Lost Years

Before pop punk became a caricature of itself, there were bands like Lost Years. Bands that made punk music with a pop mentality. Fast paced guitars, darkness battling light, lyrics that beg to be chanted and screamed at the top of your lungs. Lost Years make music that gets back to the point of pop punk, and warrants the defense of the genre.

Quote Unquote
Want a female-fronted pop punk band that doesn't fall into any of the tropes of a female-fronted pop punk band? Here's Quote Unquote, a band which garners no comparisons in the best possible way-- there's nothing derivative about this band, Tori Roper's crystalline voice has no predecessor, and the musicianship doesn't rely on the expectations of the audience. The self-titled album is a journey that needs to be experienced, a promise for great things in the future.