Review: Hoax Hunters | Comfort & Safety

Richmond threesome Hoax Hunters with its debut long-player has created an expansive, divergent set of punk-worshipping monoliths, each tune shaping an American post-hardcore lineage into formalized and nostalgic architectural shapes. The electrifying new set, Comfort & Safety, firmly establishes the trio as a noisy, squalling force, one that is both more informed and more nubile [HEY NOW -- Ed.] than many of its peers.

Hoax Hunters has been a fixture slowly rising up from the RVA scene for several years; it released a split single with Richmond dream-pop luminaries The Snowy Owls in early 2013. Long before the creation of the band, fronter and guitarist P.J. Sykes built a reputation as a go-to music photographer, relentlessly and selflessly documenting the local indie rock scene, and having work featured in Spin Magazine, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post and elsewhere. Mr. Sykes has also contributed photographs to a slew of highly regarded albums from Clicky Clicky faves including legends Superchunk and Versus. Unsurprisingly, Sykes' connected-ness within the mid-Atlantic music scene is the source of one of Comfort & Safety's strongest, defining traits: his love for currently overlooked post-hardcore standard-bearers from the mid-to-late-'80s Dischord stable -- groups like Rites of Spring, Gray Matter, Three and early Fugazi -- is reflected in his songwriting. These aforementioned bands moved punk into broader, more melodic, "mathy," and noisy territory, and to this reviewer their contributions at times seem overshadowed by trendier names and louder personalities. Hoax Hunters, however, honors these deeper and deeply important roots of the American underground, and casts their sounds and ideals within a modern framework, much like contemporary beloved and buzzed smashers Metz and Hausu.

Hoax Hunters' connection to The Snowy Owls is also illuminating. While far from a shoegazer outfit, Sykes and co. interestingly mix the vocals quite low, a move that emphasizes the shifting lead and rhythm patterns, which come courtesy of The Snowy Owls' drummer James O'Neill. Mr. O'Neill's drums bash loudly, and his great tom work is heavily foregrounded on Hoax Hunters' buzz-sawing rocker "Volume" and its tense thriller "Riskless Business." Clever studio trickery throughout injects interesting depth and dimension to Comfort & Safety and varies from song to song. Single "Breathe" utilizes swirling flange and panning in its opening moments to tasteful effect, and Sykes' various vocal filters here and elsewhere supply a subtly grit to the proceedings. Like many classic albums, these production methods give Hoax Hunters' debut a kineticism that accretes across the record toward album highlight and de facto closer "Erase." The standout track -- which apparently features "homemade electric dulcitar" from a guest player -- combines an experimental sound-collage introduction, a quick-burning hardcore song, and an extended, searing coda (which talks the listener down from the intensity of the previous numbers) to create what is perhaps Hoax Hunters most compelling composition to date. The chorus' dynamic, shout-along chant channels both the rage and joy that these guys bring to their music. "You. Can. Not. Erase," Sykes proclaims -- the final declaration that the hard work and values of those within a scene will live on, again and again.

Comfort & Safety was released last week on vinyl and as a digital download (sorry, no CDs, retro futurists!). Raleigh's Negative Fun is selling the LP (the very first to be offered by the label), and it is for sale right here. Richmond-based Cherub Records is handling the digital download sales, and if that is more to your taste, this is where you want to be. Stream the entire set via the Bandcamp embed below. -- Edward Charlton

Hoax Hunters: Bandcamp | Facebook | Internerds

Today's Hotness: Two Inch Astronaut, Hausu, Hisoft



>> If you are getting a strong DeSoto Records or Dischord vibe off of trio Two Inch Astronaut, well, that's little surprise. The act hails from Colesville, Maryland, a burg situated just north of the beltway that rings the district. On its forthcoming sophomore LP Bad Brother, Two Inch Astronaut proffer a fresh iteration of the '90s post-hardcore anthemics championed by acts such as Jawbox and Shudder To Think. The nine-song set from the self-described "stealthy dark goofy post-punk" threesome touts sophisticated, angular compositions that splay out into massive crescendoes or subdued creaking grooves. "Spank Jail," the second track on Bad Brother, illustrates Two Inch Astronaut's well-developed penchant for speed, intricate grooves, aggression and (just enough) melody, but the rest of the record reveals that the threesome ably works in myriad tempos and shadings. What is consistent throughout is a beautiful desperation and relatable unease, things that made records like Jawbox's For Your Own Special Sweetheart or even Hurl's brilliant DeSoto single "Positronic Ray" b/w "Radishes" remarkable every time you listened. Opener "Swol" -- an excellent rocker that seems one or two genetic mutations away from a composition by remarkable Boston labelmates Pile -- and the blissfully syncopated mid-album cut "Blood From A Loyal Hound" are available now for free download via Bandcamp and you should go grab those right now. However, Clicky Clicky is particularly taken with the emotional, monolithic rocker "Sternum." Exploding In Sound has kindly agreed to let us offer an exclusive stream of the track, so hit the Soundcloud embed below and then hold on to your hat. The label will release Bad Brother June 18. The set is available for pre-order from the band's Bandcamp right here as a digital download or 45RPM 12" LP. The vinyl is available in a limited edition of 250 pieces, and the first 100 sold have been pressed to translucent purple vinyl. Two Inch Astronaut's most recent prior release was a split single with Boston's angular-rock juggernaut Grass Is Green, the cringe-inducingly titled "Split Dicks," last September. Those two bands will reunite in the physical plane June 12, when they, along with Crinkle Face and Hive Bent, perform at O'Brien's in Allston Rock City. In the meantime, have a listen to "Sternum" via the embed below, and get pumped.



>> Hopping to the left coast, today we also concern ourselves with Portland, Oregon's melodic indie-punk quartet Hausu. The act is preparing for a huge summer tour and the late June release of its debut LP, Total. A preview track from the set, "Leaning Mess" (a play on the word "meaningless," maybe?) leads with clean melody lines and bright jangle but ultimately harder post-punk dynamics cast long, moody shadows across the composition. Lyrically, fronter Ben Friars-Funkhouser presents the sort of opaque romanticism of Ian Curtis and Joy Division, albeit with a delivery that accounts for the rise and (arguably for some, we suppose) the fall of hardcore punk music. It is Hausu's vivid, visceral instrumental performance on "Leaning Mess" that will hold listeners' close attention, as the band veers from more conventional verses into discordant passages that flirt with sonic white-outs, urged on notably by an increasingly unhinged Friars-Funkhouser in the song's final minute. Total is being issued June 25 on cassette by Bridgetown Records, and on CD by Hardly Art; no pre-order information for the latter is available as yet, but a recent Facebook post from Hausu states it is in receipt of the cassettes and expects to have them on offer when it launches an ambitious, exhaustive five-week North American tour this week. The quartet play a relatively local live date June 18, when the act performs at renowned Easthampton, Mass. art space The Flywheel on an all-ages bill that also includes Harmoos, Lovebird, Tender Cruncher and Abortus Fever. Make a note of the live date nearest you, as we suspect after several listens to the embed of "Leaning Mess" below you'll be thinking this is a quartet you need to see.



>> Sure, there are a great many things that the world can use a lot more of, but if you ask us enough times -- and particularly today -- we will almost certainly eventually say the world needs more music from the apparently short-lived dream-pop band Hisoft and its dazzling but even more obscure, Pittsburgh-spawned precursor The Low Numbers. We've mentioned both acts in the blog previously years ago (this post from 2005 is the most comprehensive), but they are at top of mind again today. That's because over lunch we were trolling YouTube looking for Lilys clips we hadn't seen before (more on that another time), when we found this great live set from Hisoft. The erstwhile Philly act was comprised of fronter and guitarist Gerhardt Koerner, bassist Jesse Trbovich (now part of Kurt Vile's Violators, we believe), guitarist Don Devore and drummer Jason Kourkounis, and at least Mr. Koerner had previously served as a part of the Precollections-era Lilys line-up, which should make the aforementioned line of YouTube inquiry make a bit more sense. The five-song live performance may or may not have been filmed at The Khyber in Philadelphia, and the set list suggests it must have been about the time of the release of Hisoft's brilliant 2005 EP Amateur. Four songs from the five-song EP are performed: "West Coast Keith," "Comfortable," "Country Voice" (listed as "Country" on the EP), and "Continental Luck." Hisoft closes with the brilliant Low Numbers tune "Josef Albers," the b-side from one of two singles the band released (the second single was actually issued under the band name Numbers). The YouTube clip is a crucial document of an unsung act perhaps at the height of its game, so do take the time to watch the set end to end.