Various Artists - Glamour Kills Tour Split
Record Labels Involved: Hopeless, No Sleep, Bridge 9, Rise/Velocity, Pure Noise
Release Date: March 9, 2012
It’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of a release like the Glamour Kills tour split. With the six bands on the tour splitting up in pairs to cover each other, it’s natural to miss the big picture and get excited about listening just one of the covers. While I was definitely highly anticipating my first listen of The Wonder Years covering Into It. Over It.’s brilliant “Anchor,” I think it’s important to first take a moment to step back and appreciate the big picture surrounding this release.
As Wonder Years frontman Dan “Soupy” Campbell hinted at AP.net in an interview, it’s a near-miracle that this idea ever came to fruition. Campbell points out the obvious – there are six bands, on six different record labels, with six different touring patterns that needed to work out to schedule time in a studio to record these songs. On top of that, the bands all have to like each other in the first place, and to have a tour this big with bands that respect each other this much is pretty monumental in itself. The release of this Glamour Kills tour split is a testament to how tightly knit the modern pop-punk/punk/indie/DIY/whatever scene is. Before listening to a single cover song, even a casual observer should tip his hat to the pure dedication of these bands to want to do something unique, different, and flat-out awesome for their fans.
When you do finally get around to listening to the songs, you won’t be disappointed. The split kicks off with The Wonder Years covering Into It. Over It.’s “Anchor,” a song that originally is a quiet, mellow acoustic track. Perhaps one of the more criminally underrated pieces of songwriting in the mountain-high collection that is Evan Weiss’ catalog of music, “Anchor” is turned into a different beast for this split. While it starts out fairly calm, The Wonder Years pull out all the stops in the studio and build the song up into a fiercely loud barrage of energy. At about the 1:20 mark, when Campbell first explodes into, “Steady and faithful as your anchor / Trying to keep the water safer,” it’s cathartic to hear a chorus that is usually so kept in check simply unleashed. The best part about it? We can still go listen to the excellent original version whenever we want to murmur instead of yell along with the lyrics.
On the b-side of the split, Into It. Over It. offers up his take on The Wonder Years’ “Don’t Let Me Cave In.” Possibly the highlight of the release, Weiss cleverly takes a song that originally featured a verse about him in it, written from Campbell’s personal perspective, and rewrites the lyrics to be a story about him and Campbell from his own perspective. Where Campbell’s lyrics originally read, “I spent last night getting Mexican outside of Logan Square / Basement show with Evan / Chicago looked desperate / But maybe that was me,” Weiss flips the script and offers up his own story: “I spent last night singing sad songs with Daniel / On a New Year’s Eve in Philly / The city was filthy / Just how I used to be.” The rewritten lyrics go on longer than that, but for the sake of spoiler alerts we’ll leave the quoting there. Musically, it’s a much slower, thoughtful take on the song, which originally is a blisteringly paced barnburner.
Another interesting matchup in the split sees Polar Bear Club covering Transit’s “Skipping Stone,” from their newest record Listen and Forgive, and Transit covering an older Polar Bear Club song, “Resent and Resistance.” Hearing Jimmy Stadt from PBC sing an acoustic Transit song will be a real treat for big-time Transit fans, as Polar Bear Club’s own brand of punk rock lends to an incredible change-up on the track. Where Transit vocalist Joe Boynton might go lighter on the vocals, Stadt’s gravelly voice provides a complete different soundscape. On Transit’s end, their cover sounds very much like a Listen and Forgive version of “Resent and Resistance.” More so than the other covers, it sounds as though the original track was dropped into some weird machine and spit out with another band playing it. This isn’t a bad thing; Transit is very talented and fans will be happy to see an increased amount of Tim Landers backing vocals in the cover.
The last pairing sees A Loss for Words covering The Story So Far’s “Quicksand” and TSSF doing AL4W’s “Wrightsville Beach.” The A Loss for Words’ take on “Quicksand” was probably the track that stood out most for me on first listen of the split, as a song that originally featured endless amounts of raw energy is toned down just a bit. Matty Arsenault’s pitch-perfect vocals provide a sleeker look at a track that is normally meant to be yelled while jumping up and down. Continuing on the path of its great full-length No Sanctuary, A Loss for Words is still refining a sound that separates the band from the pack. However, The Story So Far’s cover is sure to turn heads of fans of the band. The cover plays out as a shockingly straightforward, mosh-worthy hardcore song, quite unlike the band’s original style. They’re really the only band to record the cover in a completely different style than their normal writing, which is interesting because instead of a pop-punk bands covering a pop-punk song, you end up with a band playing hardcore music covering a pop-punk song. I can’t say that I’d advocate a switch in sound for the band, whose simple songs and nasally vocals will definitely lead it to a bright future, but the cover is a tribute to old hardcore bands that influence The Story So Far, so it’s a neat track.
Sure to be one of the more memorable and unique releases in 2012, the Glamour Kills tour split plays out as a remarkable success. Not only is the concept of the release refreshingly original, but each of the individual covers provides fans of the bands with an awesomely fun release to listen to while these bands are out on tour.
not a huge hardcore fan outside of defeater, but i thought the story so far song was pretty cool. everything else is awesome, i just wish the distortion on Evan's guitar was turned down just a little bit.
not a huge hardcore fan outside of defeater, but i thought the story so far song was pretty cool. everything else is awesome, i just wish the distortion on Evan's guitar was turned down just a little bit.
It took quite a few listens to get past that for me but now I really appreciate the sound he got on it.
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