Suns - Be Good Boy (2011)
If you’re into Connecticut music, you’re probably aware of Midi & The Modern Dance, the Connecticut based group whose anthemic indie pop sound has the potential to resonate far beyond this state. If you’re into Midi & The Modern Dance, you’re probably at least aware of Suns. The trio just put out their new album, an EP entitled Be Good Boy, on their bandcamp page.
Suns is comprised of three members of Midi & The Modern Dance, including singer/songwriter Will Rutledge, who fronts Suns while playing guitar for Midi. While callings Suns a “Midi & The Modern Dance spin-off group” might be a little excessive, the ties between the two bands are undeniable.
Suns seems to have spawned from the creative frustration that being in Midi led to. With a roster of up to nine people, none of whom could seemingly contribute to the band full-time, being in Midi must be creatively stifling at times. Understanding this helps contextualize the music on Be Good Boy more easily. Of course, seeing a review of their album in which the writer can’t help but mention Midi & The Modern Dance must be similarly frustrating. I’m sure that Suns would like their EP to be viewed out of the context of that band, but the connections between them are too significant to be ignored here. Aside from the previously stated member sharing, the music on Be Good Boy does not differ very much in style and form from Midi’s most recent work.
Musically, Suns employ a more rough hewn garage rock edge than their indie pop-focused progenitors, with some filtered vocals and distorted electric guitar. As a trio, the band has a relatively stripped down sound, which they compensate for with high volume and lo-fi sentimentality.
With the exception of the eerie one minute mood piece “Cold Steel”, the songs on Be Good Boy are all fairly catchy indie rock anthems detailing personal, often bitingly literal experiences with sadness, depression, self identity, and of course girls, because what else would angry punk boys complain about if not for girls? Some of the songs, such as the title track, remain the same in tone and pace throughout while others, including “This Can’t Be Me”, start quietly and build on themselves until they reach a full blown crescendo. “Be Good Boy” is fast and to the point while the closer “A Hallucinated Ending” is slow and heavy all the way through.
Clearly unafraid to raise his voice to a shout, Rutledge finds himself exploring Conor Oberst territory throughout the EP. But while his expressive vocal mannerisms are akin to Oberst’s, the melodies of his songs (and even, at times, the lyrics) call to mind Midi & The Modern Dance’s music almost immediately. This is not to say that Suns are ripping Midi off with these songs, but rather that I could picture Midi & The Modern Dance frontman Omeed Goodarzi singing all of these songs in the same way. Maybe this is the most obvious connection.
For the sake of comparison, take “Fuck Me While I’m Down”, the salaciously titled third track from the new Suns EP. It’s a great song, with really harsh and relatable lyrics and a catchy melody to deliver them. But I can’t get past the fact that every time I hear those brutally hateful and literal lines “You’re a coward, I hate you, you should be dead”, I think of Midi’s “Reprise”, on which Goodarzi sings, perhaps more eloquently but no less brutally, “I want to rip you to shreds and tear you apart.” At the end of the day, “Reprise” is the better song, and I’m forced to wonder where that leaves the rest of the EP.
Perhaps the internal politics of a band is not a reviewer’s business, but if I were to hazard a guess about this EP, I would say that the members of Suns were not just creatively frustrated, but personally frustrated as well when working on this record. This is no more evident anywhere on Be Good Boy than in the title track’s closing lines — “There’s nothing that makes me feel light or nice / So I’ll sing these songs I don’t like or write.” He’s not talking about his own work, but I don’t think that I like the songs he does write as much.
6/10
