Citified - The Meeting After the Meeting

Back in ’05 before I was doing the blog thing, I had run across a fantastic little mini LP by Greensboro, North Carolina’s Citified that was released on Eskimo Kiss Records. As far as catchy indie rock albums went, I think it was definitely my favorite of the bunch that year. Part of it had a lo-fi 80’s college rock type of feel to it, while also managing to sprinkle in dabs of reverb throughout. It had me hooked pretty quickly, to say the least.

Anyway, I think at the time of the first recording Citified was mostly the one man project of Chris Jackson with maybe a couple other guys helping out here and there. Just this past month or so though Citified has returned, and this time Jackson has recruited a full band to back him. The bands second release, The Meeting after the Meeting, is yet another small dose of nostalgia and reverb drenched melodies. It took me a bit to get used to cleaner and fully fleshed out sound, however everything that made the first LP so special is successfully worked into the seven songs on this EP. The clarity allows the glistening guitar lines to add a bit of a dream-pop element to the bands overall sound that couldn’t or didn’t really make as much of an appearance on the first record. The distance in Jackson’s vocals fit right along with the underlying melancholic small town trappings, which was one of the things that initially endeared the bands music to me when I first discovered them.

The Meeting After the Meeting:
Citified – Read Like a Number [MP3]

Citified:
Citified – I’ve Seen You Older [MP3]

Part of me wonders what a proper full-length album from these guys would be like, but then again the songs are so short and sweet I don’t necessarily see it happening or how it would work in the first place. Regardless, I’ll settle for the small dashes of output from Citified over most “indie” bands entire discography any day. For those that are interested, then head on over to Eskimo Kiss to pick up the bands latest EP The Meeting After the Meeting. The bands first LP is also available too, so definitely pick that up if you have the chance.

Scuba - Scuba

Coming out in just under a week, May 8th to be exact, is the self-titled debut album from Boston’s own Scuba. I’ve had plenty of time to sit around and really try and get a firm idea of just where exactly Scuba fits in but even after having this album for more than a couple weeks now, I still can’t exactly pin them down. From everything I’ve managed to read in between spinning the album, which is pretty good by the way, is that the band has a strong passion for shoegaze. This appears to be fairly true as Scuba’s debut is no stranger to hazy feedback. However, despite drenching their sound in feedback it’s apparent that Scuba’s true calling lies within the early 80’s post-punk/no-wave scene.

Upon the opening moments of the album I found myself a bit skeptical. I wasn’t quite sure just how the vocals were going to work, or I guess fit in, with Scuba’s sound. It didn’t seem like something that would match up too well if someone would have described it to me before hand. For the most part David Grabowski’s vocals are in line with that of the panicked and anxiety ridden approach to Ian Curtis or Robert Smith, however think of that while being sang against swells of feedback. Oddly enough as the record goes on, it seems to work and get better and better. The first couple songs are solid, no question, but it almost feels like Scuba is falling back on the trendy dancey post-punk thing a bit too much, which doesn’t compliment Grabowski’s vocals nearly as well as some of the later songs like “Maybe It’s Different With Johnny” or “King of Infinite Space”. As the album progresses it’s almost like the band does as well. The two main influences on this record really do come together by the end in quite a nice way. The bands overall creative usage of feedback and melody seems to have created a nice album full of catchy noise-pop songs that will most likely be pleasantly received by both fans of shoegaze and solid indie-pop. It’s definitely some good material with a fairly unique approach at that.

Scuba – Maybe It’s Different With Johnny [MP3]
Scuba – Hate It When You Laugh [MP3]

If you like what you hear, be sure to keep an eye out for this on Midriff Records come May 8th. For more on Scuba check them out at their MySpace.