This Town Needs Guns - 13.0.0.0.0

After listening to the incredible album 13.0.0.0.0 put forth by the incredible band This Town Needs Guns, I have but one question…

Why does your press kit go on and on about being a pop outfit?  Why does it say you decided not to chase a pop payout?

You aren’t a pop band.  You don’t even have pop vocals.  You sing.  You sing very well.  However, there is nothing about you that screams “pop-band”. 

This, my friends, is thinker’s rock.  You could actually call this the anti-pop.  Pop-rock is often rock at it’s most simplest.  This isn’t simple.

  It’s catchy enough and it isn’t distorted.  It doesn’t have overtones of anger.  However, it’s aggressively performed music with some of the most impressive guitar work I’ve heard on any album outside of shred metal bands like Wretched or amazingly intricate artists like Between the Buried and Me. 

Make no mistake, This Town Needs Guns is nothing like the previously mentioned bands.  They’re definitely a band that is easy to listen to.  They have beautiful melodies and stuttering rhythms that wind together within ever-changing time signatures. 

It’s a beautiful musical tapestry.  The rhythmical drumming by Chris Collis’ is extremely well done.  However, they fall to the wayside when it compares to the incredible guitar work and vocals.   The harmonics and plucking of Tim Collis’ guitar lead the way and the falsetto-crooning of Henry Tremain keeps the listener into the mood of the music.  

I have a very difficult time describing what I hear.  It doesn’t seem out of place with any of the bands that I love.  I could see them on tour with Thrice, Lower than Atlantis, Arrow Haze, We’re Doomed or any other band in that indie-heavy rock/punk vein. 

Although they’d also fit right in with lighter fare, like Mutemath or Death Cab for Cutie.  I don’t know.  All I know is that they’re amazing, and have skyrocketed to the top of my favorite bands.  Check them out. 
Straight A’s from The Professor. 

--The Professor