Myspace:www.myspace.com/vanishingkids
Reviewed by Dave.This evening, I'm writing a review of my favorite album of the last couple years. No it's not current, but I would consider these guys one of Portland, Oregon’s hidden gems, hell I'd consider them a hidden gem of the American music underground in general. At first I wanted to shy away from reviewing their material because I know these people personally. But, to be frank and straight forward, as far as the realm of modern rock music is concerned Vanishing Kids in my opinion make music that is a couple steps above and beyond the average, mediocre, cliché, kitche, milktoast college faux art bullshit that most people accept as “cutting edge” indie rock these days.
I'm reviewing Skies in Your Eyes which was released back in 2007, no I don't care if it's out-dated. I think it's a great album that didn't receive a quarter of the notice it deserved. It's hard to know where to begin to describe the sound of this record, ethereal would be a good word to begin with. The musicianship flows with a smooth, confident, stark, yet at times incredibly delicate beauty. The band seamlessly combines challenging progressive guitar/bass riffs, powerful percussion and dark atmospheric keys in very creative yet accessible compositions. The musical complexity of the instrumentation alone would be enough to carry Sky in Your Eyes. Vanishing Kids however, take things to another level topping things off with several layers of delicately melodic, yet assertive vocals that really pull the tapestry of contrasting sounds into focus in a very haunting heartfelt aesthetic.
While the overall aesthetics of this record do have more of a goth influence which bring to mind the likes of the Cure and My Bloody Valentine, the overall creativity and technical merits of this EP would make it an excellent addition to any progressive rock dork's collection. To put things simply this would be a great EP to be able to listen to with a girlfriend around without on wanting to stab out your owns eyes with an ice pick. It's really a rare treat to hear really creative high caliber musicianship combined with a great melodic sensibility in any modern music. Usually I have more to say positive and negative but this is really just great music that I connect with on multiple levels. If you haven't heard it already at least go check out their myspace page fuckwads!
Using Jimmy's time honored scale of 1 to 10 minutes in reference to the auto erotic pleasure produced by this album I'll give 9.5 minutes.
Tickle Your Taint's own Hartman is one of the founding members of The Vanishing Kids. It really is good stuff. Unfortunately life got in the way and they had to call it quits - and their last album remains unreleased - it's a damn shame.
ReplyDeleteJimmy introduced me to this band a couple years ago. I love the record that I have, and have been wanting to pick up some of their other records. Great songs.
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