I knew at an early age that music was going to be the most important thing in my life. I remember watching MTV before I was even in grade school and having songs by Prince, The Fixx, and Poison resonate with me long before I the capacity to grasp onto what rock and pop bands sang about, or what it took to play all the different instruments they utilized. By good or bad fortune, depending on how you look at it, I immersed myself in the underground worlds of punk and metal, and with that immersion came that inheritant "I know everything about music/my taste rules/your taste sucks/this band sucks for this ridiculous reason" attitude that often plagues subcultures that consider themselves "subversive" or "underground". I spent years spouting off at the mouth as to what was good or shitty, often time for stupid reasons that had little or nothing to do with the art created by the band itself, until maturity kicked in and showed me how to critique and appreciate music without being a complete and total ignoramous.
If there's one thing that's come up in my experience with music repeatedly, its that there really is a thin line between absolutely loving a band or a song, and despising every aspect or a band or song with every fiber of your being. I can think of tons of bands that immediately upon hearing, seemed to have moved me more so than anything in recent memory, only to find that after spending time with said record, my ears and brain had deceived me, and it was hardly a footnote in the ever-evolving history of recorded sound. I've also heard bands that offended all of my senses upon first exposure, only to become an all time favorite after marinating in my mind, or getting more life experience on my belt. Some of these swings in taste I can easily justify and illustrate to any person with half a grip on the English language. Other swings are as much as mystery to me as most algebra, the consumption of raw foods, or how any male cast member of MTV's The Jersey Shore gets laid (except for Vinnie, that seems like he possesses the ability to think rationally).
While I personally have moved away from a lot of newer punk/hardcore/indie/emo crossover style bands, I am fortunate enough to have a few friends who are making a run at being full time musicians in those arenas, and we often get to talking about what we're listening to when given a chance to chew the fat. Recently, a good friend of mine who spends a lot of his time in a van playing music in what he referred to as "a teenager's world" (and I envy his ability to thrive in that world without committing extreme acts of violence or nursing a heroin habit that would make Iggy Pop circa 1971 uncomfortable), turned me onto a band called Hostage Calm. He described them as updated 60-70s pop played by incredibly adept musicians who in addition to have stellar chops. I know, the description seemed odd to me too, but this particular friend has steered me right so many times in the past that I quelled my initial resistance to checking out something that seemed so risky, and decided to give their self-titled record a try. This is what I heard:
I heard how my friend came to his description of Hostage Calm from, but what I heard when I put this record on was not so easily summed up in sentence using other bands as means of comparison. I realized that I had only a few hours to bask in the glory of getting my post about Anne up for the world to read before getting a musical curve ball thrown at me that would simmer on the back burner of my mind all evening despite my best efforts at dicking around with my good friends at a DIY show/live space and a nearby bar. I was thrown instantly to that crossroads of loving or hating something I've heard for the first time, and that debate couldn't be removed from my mind for any reason last night. Some of you may have the ability to hear a band doing something unfamiliar and temporarily forget about it in order to go do other things in life. I wouldn't say I envy you, but I'm sure you have more fun when your mind isn't hijacked by guitars, drums, and vocals on a regular basis.
I listened to Hostage Calm's record three times before leaving my grandfather's office to watch The Daily Show with my grandmother and ultimately leaving their apartment and laptop behind. I thought I did myself a favor by not putting Hostage Calm on my iPhone, but their record was on my mind regardless of whether or not I had it to listen to. On one hand, I loved the band's quirky, syncopated rhythms and unconventional guitar parts. On the other hand, their vocals seemed incredibly polished over and started to venture into that territory of bubblegum pop that is too sweet for my taste and lends itself to this modern era of bands more concerned with moving units that creating art (I don't mean to sound presumptuous with that statement, and I'm not accusing the band of anything other than writing the music they do. This is just merely a reaction to a sound I heard, so everyone keep their panties untied you finish reading the entire post).
I texted my friend to "thank" him for putting my mind into a whirl over a record/band I wasn't particular interested in investigating in the first place (and even less so for this new "heavy" music blog I'm starting), and told him how I was standing on that narrow line between thinking they could be the greatest band I've heard in a long time and being an all out affront on my ears and brain. He said it was a record he had to sit with to fully love, and that he read somewhere that they cited Squeeze as a big influence on writing this record, specifically the song "Pulling Mussels From A Shell". So I took that into consideration...
Then I went back to their record...
This has been more or less going on in my head for the last twenty four hours. Since yesterday evening, I have more or less had Hostage Calm on repeat as I've showered, answered e-mails, ate lunch, wrote other pieces, and as I've started and stopped writing this post since getting home late last night. I can honestly say that the jury hasn't completely returned on this record. Hostage Calm are definitely doing their own thing, and going out on a limb that is obviously one that isn't necessarily one fortified with epically high soundscans or a heavy modern rock radio presence, but similiar to bands like Coheed and Cambria or The Blood Brothers before them, Hostage Calm are treading ground that hasn't been tread by other people of their generation yet, and are at the very least an interesting listen. I plan on catching them live this summer and perhaps wrapping up my thoughts on exactly where I stand on what this band is doing, but if you're looking for something that's pretty unconventional by today's standards, and for a band carving out their own way within an underground where even the extreme bands have a formula to follow, check Hostage Calm out. This may not be your favorite band, and maybe not even a band that's for the majority of people you know, but a fan of any sort of guitar driven rock music will definitely find this record interesting to listen to and a topic to help spark lively debate between good friends.
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