 Lemming
"Fall" CDR
Self-released
Genres: indie rock, rock, punk
Lemming
551 W. Highland
Zanesville, OH 43701
Mar 10 - 16 2003 |
Upon
first listen, Fall sounded like shit. Complete and utter
shit. The instruments were all messed up and the recording
quality was sub-bootleg. I loathed the day I'd have to review
it.
But, soon enough, the bell tolled. Annoyed and terribly unrested,
I shoved the crudely designed Lemming disc into my stereo and
sat back with a pissed off look on my face. Not there was anyone
around to see how unpleased I was, but I guess I just wanted to prove
to myself that I - the self-important little bugger I am - was too
good for the music.
And guess what? Fall proved me wrong. Not only
was it pretty good - in a very DIY way - but it was surprisingly
original. And it was from a bunch of high school kids,
too! The songs were catchy, and had some pretty nice sounds to
them, including some neat, discordant guitar chords and a hardcore,
angered energy in the vocals.
Though their sound is pretty cool,
often the band relies a bit too much on repetition and noise - an
example is the seventh track, "Get Off," which is a four
minute tune that feels much longer than it actually is. While the loud,
climactic chorus is very effective, the other parts, consisting mainly
of a short, repeated chord progression and some yelled vocals, sound
more like a jam session than a real recording. Meanwhile,
"Selfish" ends up sounding like a parody of an emo song
(which it may or may not be - hmmm...)
The band excels best when working in a fast-paced, punk formula.
"Destroy the Conceited" is a fine example; a repeated,
jangly chord structure forms the backing to the song's verse, while
the guitarist steps on the distortion pedal for the chorus.
Though it seems simple, the song's tempo and its relative brevity (two
minutes) keeps it from getting stale. Other tracks, like the
title-track, "Slowly Going Numb," "Imperfect", and
the poppy "Dandelions" are also very well-done.
Although they definitely have some work to do, for a high school
band, Lemming are really good. DIY punk rock fans are
urged to check them out.
83%
Fun Fact: Lemming's hometown
of Zanesville, Ohio is quite the hotbed for punk and rock bands.
In addition to Lemming, Zanesville also hosts such DIY acts as Up
And Atom, PEN15, General Strike, Artificial Happiness, and Enterrupted
By Life. There's even a website dedicated to the Zanesville
(and Central Ohio) scene, called Tinnitus.
Matt Shimmer [Vitals:
14 songs, distributed by Tinnitus, released 2002] |
