New Grade song!!! "These Eyes Are On The Exit"

The other photo I found one of the band members was wearing their own merch. That's no fun...also the above album has a hilarious mistaken identity issue with the Taylor "Soul Patrol" Hicks album of the same name. People looking for the latter album ended up giving this album terrible ratings on Amazon.com because they were too dumb to notice that just maybe the artist wasn't correct or that Satan forbid there's the same title to multiple recordings. Sucks for Grade, and sucks that Taylor Hicks fans are total idiots. I love soul music. Although there's one review that's a 5 star review for the Taylor Hicks album, under the Grade CD page. I think that's probably even more idiotic...

Grade is one of my favorite bands of all time. They dance along a fine line of being too melodramatic, but they back it up with a sensible mix of hardcore, punk, pop hooks, and a tinge of metal.

By sensible I mean their music gets under your skin; there's a familiarity to it, as if they sound like other bands, but the key is they did it slightly before, and did it better. They don't sound overly polished, and are really huge on the 5ths which is a favorite guitar sling of mine. Their pop sheen is buried under tons of distortion and even better, they take their time with the melodies and rhythms. This patience either causes or is because of the heaviness of the sound; some part always feels almost behind in pace whether it's the vocals (strung along with not a lot of regard to the music, very emo eh?), the guitars, or the drumming. It may sound sloppy, but you realize that the music just has this weight to it; that's what makes the sluggishness so appealing. When I take a look at their tabs, I'm amazed at how simple they are.

What helps is the vocals: they switch between these powerful screams and a harsh, raspy, sometimes snotty singing from Kyle Bishop. It never veers into that territory of clean singing, which I feel has ruined so many other bands. The screaming I guess I would not be able to place as different than other bands, but the pitch has a lightness to it that just sounds actually angry and not screaming for a macho effect. The instrumentation from most song to song has the same reverb-y, wide, big pummel to it. It's like one epic scream along after the next. The kind of songs where you stand there and raise a hand, fingers curled, with your palm facing you as you take in huge breaths and scream every syllable, whether you know the lyrics or not, at a 45 degree angle upward.

New song at Grade's MySpace page

With their new song, "These Eyes Are On The Exit", it starts off unassuming and pretty clean, and then tears into what I would think is ecstasy for fans of the band. Talk about not even missing a beat, it feels exactly like their prime material. Sure there's more backing vocals, but punk has to make a comeback at some point right? The words are still unintelligible, there's a slow breakdown in the middle, and the guitar work has the same feel to it.

My friend and office mate Loni from esteemed blogs such as Berman's Bothers informed me that this was part of a split with Bane, who is coming around again in late October to New York to Santos Party House, where apparently everything is possible. It's good to see a band in such good standing with other bands. Also, more bands should do splits in general; I always thought that was a great way of building rapport in the community. Kind of like rappers guest appearing on other artists' tracks, but in a slightly more substantial way.

I'm definitely pumped.