Okay, so I found out about this band when one of my favorite Portland acts, Girlfriends, was touring through the area. Snowing was on the bill as well as Algernon Cadwallader and 1994! I had never heard Snowing before but I had heard a lot about them and I was excited to see them. Their set was spastic and brief with poor sound (we couldn’t hear the vocals at all), however, it was fun. They were very engaging with the crowd almost in a loving way. I decided to pick up one of their 12” vinyls, entitled I Could Do Whatever I Want If I Wanted, just to see what they would sound like on some recordings. This was little to no help. It just sounded like a botched recording session. Vocals were a little more conceivable than the live show but still hard to discern and the guitars/drums sounded distant. I mean don’t get me wrong, I do love bands that have the “rough sound” but it just doesn’t work with Snowing’s poppy indie-emo math rock sound. All that aside, the album is just below mediocre. The opener “I think were in Minsk” is a boring early 90’s emo rip off track and truth be told it holds the mold for the rest of the songs on the record. The whole thing sounds like a bad cut and paste job. Lyrically the album doesn’t do much for me either. It’s almost as if the singer is reading to us out of his 3rd grade journal. The lyrics do the emo genre justice however with typical themes about wanting an ex back and being alone. There really were no highlights on this album for me. If pressed, I would say the best track is “Why Am I Not Going Underwater?” and that is only because my record player malfunctioned towards the end of it and started making this droning looping sound. Nevertheless, these emo revivalist bands have become very popular so I will post a link to the music. The vinyl is in standard packaging with a full page lyric insert. Best thing overall about the record is the cover art. It looks like my cat.
Side note: After the show while talking to the band I asked them where I could find a digital format of the album. They said: “Mediafire.” Lol.
I Could Do Whatever I Wanted If I Wanted:
Snowing's Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/snowingtheband
Snowing's Website:
http://www.snowingtheband.com
-Jas
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