SXSW 2005 Showcasing Artists
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The Heavenly States
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The Heavenly States are dazzlingly executed "pop" with more hooks n' sleeved-tricks than a thousand Midwestern Replacements rip-off bands combined, that may at times disguise itself as transatlantic moody alternative radio rock but ultimately transcends that and far surpasses it through sheer force and imagination. A dimension of the musicianship recalls the first time you heard Meat Puppets and said, “Wow, these people can actually play the fuck out of their instruments!”
There are three powerful little engines working together and against each other in this music, dense drumming that chugs at the full tilt of Albini-spawn 90's postrock but crams more ideas in per measure. There are blistering guitar layers that recall the Thurston Moore approach of burying melodies inside chord voicing and noise, and violin playing that brings a precise lyricism to the project with all the sass of Cale's string contributions to VU yet more technically accomplished. Imagine if you were at an electro dance party that didn't suck because the music was played with the verve and bravado which, at the time of writing this, is still beyond the capability of most robots or even your average hipster grist. As you would at a good dance party, you find your self blasted against and enveloped within a complex and rocked-out wall of frequencies somehow navigable as carefully crafted verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus tune-smithing. All this is achieved without the gimmickry of odd mathy time signatures or Kool palettes of sounds. The instrument setting takes rock performance in a new direction. |
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TECHNOLOGY PARTNER
