It seems chaotic art rock is here to stay. Math rock, no wave, free jazz,
and whatever else have bred enough worthwhile bands to validate the idea of
using chaos in a variety of forms to create songs. Of the bands who fit
into this, The Get Hustle seem a little different for me. You see, I enjoyed
the way Sonic Youth would go crazy and make noise for 15 minutes in the
middle of a song, and I enjoyed the way Arab on Radar seem to be losing
control of themselves (and the song) on every single song, and a number of
other things about a lot of noise-y bands. But I still had a hard time
appreciating the deconstruction of standard song rules which, I believe, was
the whole point. Instead, I just thought it was kind of funny, and that it
was something neat to throw in the mix with pop music. With The Get Hustle,
it sounded like they were actually trying to do something to pop songs
instead of throwing some chaos and noise in with pop songs.
Not to say that The Get Hustle try to approach the idea of avant-garde type
songwriting in the technical way as opposed to the aesthetic. That's just
how I hear it.
The Get Hustle's take on music is obviously one which bends towards chaos,
deconstruction, and noise. However, they are not so easy to describe.
Imagine US Maple playing lounge music and you might be getting there. Does
it help to add that The Get Hustle's guitarist is touring with The Melvin's
as their second guitarist? On their first album they showed that they knew
how to write smooth jazzy songs that had been smashed, broken, and refit in a
bizarre and, at times, almost illogical way using standard instruments (drums,
bass, keyboard, guitar and vocals). Though the bass has been removed from
the lineup, their second album, Earth Odyssey, has found it's path much
better. They seem to be writing screwed up songs from the beginning instead
of just making already written songs sound screwed up. The result is a much
more natural, unified feel.
The falling apart in a song that The Get Hustle has mastered is something
that has been done many times, but never so pleasingly. The jazz-lounge
feel of their music is much less abrasive than the myriad of other bands
trying to do this same thing, which maybe makes The Get Hustle more
accessible than say, Clikitat Ikatowi. But, in my opinion, they're just far
better at it than most others.
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