Welcome The Problems - Colossal

It's often easy to label a band based on the company they keep. You assume that if they tour with certain bands or sign to a certain label, then of course they must be of a similar style. Whilst that's true of many bands, there are always going to be a few exceptions. Colossal fall into the latter category. To call them a punk band would be far too easy. Punk is too simple a definition for exactly what their music is. The truth is, there isn't really a easy definition for Colossal. The band described themselves as a “rock, post-punk, jazz, and pop, indie rock outfit” which is about as good a description as any. There is even a hint of Math Rock to their complex rhythms and stunning technical ability, though they forgo the rigid structures of that particular niche genre for a looser, jazzier feel. But their music is something more than the sum of all those different elements. There is a melancholy soul to their album “Welcome The Problems”. Perhaps its because the band come from Elgin, illinois and my preconceptions about the place have coloured my view, but to me this album is the perfect soundtrack for walking through suburban streets in the winter.

Craps - Big Dipper

 Indie rock in America has always gone hand in hand with student life. Band's are often formed whilst their members are studying at university and college radio stations, often far more relaxed when it comes to playlists than their larger, commercial counterparts, were often the first places to hear new and exciting bands. Some of the most fertile indie rock scenes in the USA started out in college towns. It's of little surprise then that a city such as Boston, where there is over 100 universities, would play host one of the most diverse and fruitful scenes.

     In the 1980's Boston's hardcore punk bands gained a reputation as being particularly ferocious but it wasn't until the late 80's and early 90's that Boston's more melodic bands started gaining more widespread recognition. The Pixies, Dinosaur Jr and The Lemonheads are just some of the bands that came out of Boston's historic streets, each of them with their own individual sound. Unlike other regional American scenes of the time (Seattle, Washington D.C etc), where there was a specific “sound” all the Boston bands sounded different from each other. Whether it was the feedback-drenched wall of noise produced by Dinosaur Jr or the sharp post punk of Mission of Burma, each band's style set them apart from the others. Whilst this lack of congruity between acts created some of the most individual and interesting bands of the era, it has also lead to the Boston scene being somewhat under-recognised as a whole. Dinosaur Jr and The Pixies went on to international fame and fortune, becoming huge in the wake of the Alt. Rock boom in the early 1990's, though by the mid 90's both bands had imploded. But whilst they were touring the world and selling thousands of records, bands like the Blake Babies and Big Dipper, were operating under the Radar.