Wednesday, February 8, 2012

The Life And Times Challenges You


The Life and Times of today are indeed interesting whether you’re a musician or just a person. If you’re Allen Epley the life and times of a musician are so interesting that they're worth singing about. The former front man of Shiner has recently pulled together his resources, written a bunch of songs and put together a new band that just so happens to go by the name...The Life and Times.

Taking post rock infusing it with some geometric formulas and then adding a sedative of post grunge, The Life and Times create music that's a hazy comedown from outer space. Their album No One Loves You Like I Do is a complicated formula of riffs, distortion, angularity, and songs that are gauzy and obtuse. At times sounding like Alice In Chains if they were more technically proficient and at times sounding as if they were from another galaxy, The Life and Times create a strange, but entertaining amalgamation of complicated atmospheric sounds.

Power chords collide with one other, drums roll and fill, and the vocals sound as if they've been sedated and when No One Loves You Like I Do is done you're left breathless and confused. This is a technically challenging album and fairly removed from being pop. However, deep within it's mathematical equations lies a smidgen of pop sensibility that allows for several songs on No One Loves You Like I Do to be more than just endless jam sessions. It’s these moments of memorability scattered amongst the sea of riffs, distortion, and haze and that keep your mind focused on what’s going on around it.

The Life and Times are extremely good at what they do. Epley and his band lackadaisically create cascades of pillowy noise and songs that might give waves of ecstasy and some a headache. No One Loves You Like I Do is filled with these moments and if you like feedback, bad dreams, cold sweats and know Pi to 12 places then you will love this record. This is calculator rock and it's a formula for awesome.

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