Review: Tub Ring - Fermi Paradox

artist: tub ring album: fermi paradox label: underground inc. released: by: drew walton The name of this band still gets me wondering what these guys were discussing the night it was born and makes me wish I was there. After listening to this particular album, it really makes me want to get into their heads and discover the true motives behind their music. Not to say that it is bad in the least. In fact, for those who know me, this is something I crave: a band that will produce oxymoron after oxymoron in their music. It gets me hooked simply for its originality. I mean, which of you guys have heard an album where song seven is classic hard rock, song eight is short, fast, “grindy,” electric dissonance, and song nine is a raga (type of Indian music)? No you heard me right, song nine consists of an honest to God, sitar-driven raga. Well I have heard an album like this, and it‘s called Fermi Paradox. The album as a whole is hard to put a finger on. It’s a hard rockin’, punk, acid jazz, electrically supplemented good time. No matter what the tempo, I guarantee it’s an album that deserves to be danced to, and one such as me can’t really help but start moving to the beat. As long as you fight the temptation to ask yourself “why the hell did they put that there,” or “why did they decide to be like this here,” you’ll find that after listening to this album, you had a fairly good time. My favorite song would have to be “Living with Rene’s Head.“ Like I said before, I like this band’s music simply because of all the 180s they do. It’s like riding a Ferris wheel compared to riding a roller coaster. The Ferris wheel is fun and has a great view, making it good for some situations, but for my money I like to go up, down, get tossed around, and not know what’s going to happen next. The song goes jazz, “grindy” dissonance, jazz, dissonance, disco, rock, electronica, rock and repeat. Ahh, the combinations are endless. Speaking from a point of musicianship these guys really know what’s up. They just choose to express themselves differently. The rhythm section produces a lot of “danceability” as well as frequent solid time changes. The vocals have an aspect that any good vocalist should push in their voice: character. Along with tone and harmony, this aspect should be stressed. That same character is also stressed in the instruments, all 12 of them, aside from the obvious five-piece that makes up the actual band there are also ten extra guest musicians playing things like violin, marimba, vibraphone, sax, flute, trumpet, sitar, extra percussion, and adding extra vocals to the music. This vast number of musicians gives the freedom to explore some real exciting stuff. So in conclusion, even though this band may not sound serious at first listen, I believe that they are very serious, and have a serious message in their music. I felt even stronger about this after reading some of the lyrics and seeing how much real depth they have. It’s interesting to see the medium in which they chose to express these words. Eh, do whatever’s clever and this is clever indeed. favorite song: “living with rene’s head“ rating: 89%/100% listen to tub ring