Hello! Welcome to another edition of Dead In Our Tracks, While my aim was for this column to be monthly, due to scheduling conflicts with our intended guest, it took a little bit of finangling to get this one out, but here it is: Dead In Our Tracks #3 with special guest Jeana from Twin Brook.
Dead In Our Tracks #3: Jeana from Twin Brook
Hello hello hello!
Hello!
Last time on Dead in Our Tracks, we talked about an incredible record — Deloused in the Crematorium — and I’m here this time with Jeana from Providence based Twin Brook to talk about the Mayor’s selection: The Rising Tide by Sunny Day Real Estate. But before we get to that, what have you all been up to in this pandemic period? What’s new with Twin Brook?
We are mostly vaccinated, which is very cool and exciting, which means we are going back to the studio at the end of June or early July. We have a split that we are recording. We’re doing half and then Dog Stuff is doing the other half. Um, so we have been working on that. We are writing a full length right now which is really weird but a lot of fun!
What about you individually?
Except for Twin Brook stuff, pretty much nothing. I went from being the most social person in that scene to the person who is hardest to reach and honestly, I’m kind of okay with it. Sitting in my living room and playing guitar and watching anime is the way I like it now. Actually I love it that way. It’s great and I don’t ever want to go outside again.
The two of us are in it so we have a little bit of bias, but to an outside observer how would you describe this little tiny scene that has been built in southern Mass and Providence?
Yeah, it’s wild! I feel like people are starting to notice how much talent is in our specific scene. I feel like I will be looking at Instagram stories from friends that I met playing shows with bands from out of state, and they’re just sharing bands from around here that they just found independently. I feel like this scene is a force to reckon with but it’s also the underdog.
If you had to think of one band to epitomize this scene, what would you recommend people look into and check out?
That’s a tough question. Probably The Fairview, though. With being good friends with them and being super close with Jake, seeing how he writes is really interesting and seeing the way he writes with Nolan is incredible. That’s a great hopping off point. Their stuff rips.
Interviewing them for this site was really a privilege for sure.
It’s purely good stuff. It reminds me of pop-punk but the way it was like 5 years ago. Man Overboard and Transit, and I love that stuff to death. I should be embarrassed to say that but I love Man Overboard.
What’s your desert island record?
It has to be Take This To Your Grave by Fall Out Boy. I’m sitting in my car right now with a package and I know for a fact that it’s a take this to your grave T-shirt. And I can say pretty confidently that it’s not just my desert island record, but probably everyone in Twin Brook’s as well.
And what’s something newer you’ve been spinning?
The new Origami Angel. It’s so good. It’s on another level. This record makes Somewhere City look like a five and I would call that record a ten on any other day of the week.
Past Life gives me very similar vibes! We’re going to move into talking about Sunny Day Real Estate. Do you have any personal history with this record?
No! I had never listened to this specific record until you talked to me about doing this interview. I have listened to their other stuff but I had never listened to this album.
Based on that experience with the band, what were you expecting from this album?
So, I mean, this album stood out to me a lot. It’s minimalistic and full of soft tones because I am so used to their other records like Diary, and how that album art is so detailed and full of color. So I wasn’t expecting anything like that. Sort of in that second I thought to myself that this wasn’t going to be what I expected of the record and I do believe that I was definitely right.
Once you went through the album what did you think about it?
So, I’m actually super conflicted about this album. It is technically very good. The musicianship? Great. The production? Great. Everything about it is great, but I don’t like it. I am a very big proponent of the idea that something can be really good but not for you. So I can understand this being someone’s desert island album. It hits all the marks if that is what you like. I did a little bit of research. It became clear to me through the research that they kind of wanted to do something different. This was their last album too. They definitely wanted to do something different and they kind of went for this 70s prog kind of vibe, like Rush and Yes. That kind of stuff. U2, too. And those are three bands that I hate. I really don’t like that kind of music. It felt like a precursor to some of the stuff that Muse would do and I also hate Muse. It just didn’t go well for me. I was really nervous about doing this because I tried so hard to like this record and I just didn’t like it. The thing is if I liked those types of sounds I would think that this is a great record. But that prog ambient stuff just isn’t for me. I want to like it so badly but I just can’t.
I mean that makes sense to me. Cards on the table: I had never heard this record until the middle of March when The Mayor sent me on my way to listen to it. I really don’t have the attachment with this band that you or they do. I was going through it and on my first listen through I didn’t really feel it. But eventually it kind of grew on me. It is, I think, kind of an acquired taste in a way. Arena grunge is kind of a vibe though and that opener really goes. Killed by An Angel is one of the best openers I’ve ever heard, but the rest of the album does feel different. I think I really like it though.
There’s one song that I really liked a lot. Fool in the Photograph is great, and it reminds me a lot of traditional Sunny Day Real Estate. That was the song where I thought that this was the same band. But i love that signature sound where it is the grunge emo that didn’t even know it was emo yet. I love that sound. And I feel like that is the charm of them for me. They were doing this grungy rock and this kind of music that they didn’t even know that they were creating. To be completely honest with you, I picked up a book that is the history of emo told by the people that were there who created it, and I ended up reading a lot in that book about how they genuinely had no idea what they were doing. I wish that there was more of that on this album. I feel ike this album is a lot of them being great and knowing exactly what they want to be doing. I love when bands don’t know that they’re good. They had no idea how good they were in their earlier days. And this album I feel like they knew and were trying to prove it.
It’s really funny because my next question was going to be about the standout tracks on this record, but it turns out it is only the stand out track.
It’s just that one.
Are there any things on this record that you gravitate towards?
Honestly, I really like the vocal production throughout the album. It was definitely different. The vocal mixing is really buried on their older stuff and on this they properly mixed the vocals. I think that is beneficial to them because that guy can sing and that is incredibly obvious throughout the entire album. If there is any good thing I took from this record is that I finally learned what a good vocalist he is. Because you don’t get to hear a lot of it on their other stuff. And there were qualities to the production that made it feel like they were purposely mixed in a lofi setting and I really liked that juxtaposition against really big production of the band. I thought that was really cool.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard a voice quite like his. It’s so unique and weird and different. Last time, I spoke to The Mayor about The Mars Volta and bands that sort of came out of their music. Based on what you know of what they sound like throughout their career, what kind of bands do you think were inspired by Sunny Day Real Estate?
I talk about this band in every single thing I ever do, but it has to be Title Fight. This is the third one I’ve done where I’ve made it a point to talk about Title Fight. But like, it is so clear that them and Basement and all of those grungy emo bands would not be there without Sunny Day Real Estate. Citizen, too. All of those bands. Granted, Citizen has grown out of that, but either way, what put them on the map was Sunny Day Real Estate-core. Mostly Title Fight.
Did you just call it Sunny Day Real Estate-core? I love that.
Absolutely I did. I am so willing to add core to any descriptor. Band names can be genre descriptors.
I know that this isn’t your particular jam, but going off this record if you had to make music recommendations just based on this, where would you point someone?
Honestly, and I know I have already said that I hate this band, but I am going to recommend this album because I think it is a good album. I would recommend The Joshua Tree by U2 because they are very similar sonically. Despite my hatred for U2 and that they infiltrated every iPhone. I think that the Joshua Tree is a great record. The Rising Tide is U2-core.
Changing like a tide, we move from the Rising Tide to your selection, what will our next artist be talking about?
Goblin by Tyler the Creator.
Oh yeah?
That is one of my favorite records of all time. When it came out it felt very edgy because people were just saying slurs. It’s more than that though, it is a concept record and a story and it involves this character that he created talking to a therapist. That’s pretty much what all the songs are. I genuinely think that album was so important in the trajectory of hip-hop changing. At the time it came out, it felt very dominated by ass shaking songs, which is important. But that album was a complete change of direction. It felt like a spatial shift to experimental stuff. There’s stuff related to horror and emo there, and I would love to think of what the next person thinks of Goblin.
We’ll find out next time on Dead In Our Tracks. Jeana and the rest of Twin Brook can be found here. A full of all songs discussed in this interview can be found here.
- IX – Rent Strike
- Deloused In the Crematorium – The Mars Volta
- The Rising Tide – Sunny Day Real Estate
- Goblin – Tyler the Creator
