Brain F≠ – Sleep Rough (Grave Mistake/Sorry State Records)
An argument has been proffered by many writers more inclined towards authoritative statements than myself that the seven-inch EP is the perfect format for punk rock. The line of reasoning is that the short, sharp shock aesthetic is dulled by the attempt to reach past the twelve minutes of music that such a record is capable of containing. While the thought process is somewhat specious – many bands simply aren’t capable of writing varied and interesting enough material to justify a full-length release, a reference more to the quality of the bands than the format – a large body of work exists that suggests that the jump from short-form material is one that many bands cannot undertake successfully. Bearing this in mind, it can be hard not to be a little worried when confronting releases like the newest from Charlotte, North Carolina’s Brain F≠, a band whose previous output has been comprised of two EPs that expressed an extremely well articulated vision and possessed a succinctness that provided strong reinforcement for their energy and the arrangement of their ideas.
Brain F≠ – Sleep Rough (Grave Mistake/Sorry State Records)
An argument has been proffered by many writers more inclined towards authoritative statements than myself that the seven-inch EP is the perfect format for punk rock. The line of reasoning is that the short, sharp shock aesthetic is dulled by the attempt to reach past the twelve minutes of music that such a record is capable of containing. While the thought process is somewhat specious – many bands simply aren’t capable of writing varied and interesting enough material to justify a full-length release, a reference more to the quality of the bands than the format – a large body of work exists that suggests that the jump from short-form material is one that many bands cannot undertake successfully. Bearing this in mind, it can be hard not to be a little worried when confronting releases like the newest from Charlotte, North Carolina’s Brain F≠, a band whose previous output has been comprised of two EPs that expressed an extremely well articulated vision and possessed a succinctness that provided strong reinforcement for their energy and the arrangement of their ideas.
The band’s headlong leap into longer-form releases should assuage some concerns. Their frantic vigor remains very much intact, as is their ability to straddle a line between the aesthetics of garage rock’s lower-fidelity strains and those of the earliest punk rock bands. By doing so, they’re able to make the transition to faster, harder permutations of their genre. Theirs is a messy, unhinged sound, a raucous affair with charms that are difficult to accurately represent verbally, but one whose discordance acts more as a counterbalance to the band’s facility with memorable melody and song structure than as the sort of veneer of false authenticity that so many self-consciously noisy bands hide underneath.
This melodic side might not necessarily be the first thing a listener notices, but once it’s picked out, it’s not easily forgettable. The vocals provide the strongest indication of the pop hooks at the core of Brain F≠’s sound, with Elise Anderson’s dynamic wail acting as a focal point that’s counterbalanced by Nick Goode’s more understated backing. I’m left with a feeling like I’ve heard the songs before, but not in the sense that they’re derivative; rather, they seem effortless, as if all the juxtapositions and seeming incongruities were an afterthought at most, that the band simply plugged in instruments and let their music issue forth with no preconception. It’s too accessible to be considered a truly noisy record, and too noisy to be widely accessible, but therein lies the greatness.
While the brevity of Brain F≠’s earlier releases might have suited their manic urgency somewhat better than their newest, the band has adapted remarkably well. There’s little variety between the songs, and not much in the way of dynamics, but the energy carries it. It survives the way that the best punk rock does – through a frenetic mix of the fucked and the friendly that renders aesthetic precedents and conceptual inconsistencies irrelevant. The band has carved a distinctive niche for themselves, and it will be interesting to witness whether subsequent releases will see them expanding upon that position or dwelling upon it and owning it more completely.
