Several descriptions on the Moment Before Impact Records website make reference to the "Chapel Hill Sound" when describing their list of local artists. In Cold Sides case, evidently, we are to believe this is a "refreshing" departure from the standard "Chapel Hill Sound." The problems with this are numerous, and if someone in Chapel Hill believed there ever was such a thing as a "Chapel Hill Sound," likely they would be tied up to the back of an old Ford F150 and taken out to Mebane or possibly even Fuquay-Varina in hopes that they would never return to Chapel Hill again.
The rub is that the label then asks us to believe Cold Sides is such a "refreshing" change to all that rehash, as the band owes so much of their entire existence to Polvo, perhaps more so than any other Chapel Hill band I've heard (a fairly noteworthy accomplishment in its own right). Step one in sounding like Polvo: try to get down some of those old alternate tunings that Polvo copyrighted. Check. Step two in sounding like Polvo: try to get down some of those weird song structures they did or, failing that, at least copy a couple riffs. Check. Step three in sounding like Polvo: get Jerry Kee to record your album at the Duck-Kee studio. Check. Cold Sides checks their Polvo list twice, and at least two songs on Cold Sides debut full length sound eerily similar to Polvo songs and several others are clearly inspired by the band. "It Goes On" and "(It Was Just) Numbers" are just Polvo songs, slightly altered by the less precise performance. The performance is still decent enough (those old Polvo songs were great, weren't they), and I could almost convince myself to enjoy these songs if the band just called themselves "Polvo Jr.," "Baja Polvo," or maybe "Not David Bowie, Ash Bowie." However if I'm to take them as a "refreshing" change, I have to ask how much I can allow myself to be refreshed by what other people regurgitate.
Of course, Cold Sides' debut album isn't merely a remaking of a Polvo album, likely because the band members are not good enough musicians to pull that off. Instead, the formula is updated slightly by viewing the works of Polvo in the post-Radiohead world. Radiohead's love of Pink Floyd gives Cold Sides another, less complex way of approaching Polvo, giving them time to play quieter, moodier segments and simple builds in volume where less chords, less fingerwork, less effort, and less skill are required in order to pull it off. Is Radiohead something easier to pull off than Polvo? Perhaps slightly, but even Radiohead has trouble pulling off Radiohead sometimes, so how much should one really expect out of a bunch of old hardcore guys like Cold Sides? Tracks like "Dead Weight" try hard to pull something like that off (and perhaps is one small bit of inspiration away), using an introduction of sparse guitar work and off-key singing before flowing into a brief, chunky build. "Summer Beard" tries another build, this time using odd, interesting industrial sounds, creating a maelstrom of noise that is still mostly musical.
Isn't the "Chapel Hill Sound" supposed to be "pfft" (the sound of a can of beer opening)? Perhaps Moment Before Impact meant to imply Cold Sides don't drink. If that's the case, then I really shouldn't be so hard on this record, as it really isn't bad, per se (especially for a bunch of straight-edgers). It just has so few new ideas that it only achieves the minimum standards of listenability when the mind is fully divorced from the listening experience. When I listen to the band, I hear too many call outs to take them seriously, however, when I merely let my mind and the music exist in the same space, the music has promise. Perhaps, with something more to make the music their own, Cold Sides could make something worthwhile.
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