EVERTON -
floorsleepers
(CD, self
released)
The “show me how you live and I’ll tell you who you
are”-paradigma has been adopted by big business in the last decades and
after a lot of empirical and inductive research introduced into the realms
of market research for good. For instance the Sinus Milieus® by Sociovision
uses pictures of typical living rooms and bedrooms to visualize who their
ten or twelve basic types of people in Austria are and I swear that I have
seen the same setting that Everton use to illustrate their album title in
the information leaflets of Sociovision for the segment of the
“experimentalists”. And Everton use these settings to give their
projected target group a signifyer to identify. Probably to show them that
they as a band come from the same setting as their listeners. That cheap but
stylish, sparsely furnished as a statement that says “I know design” at
the same time it says “I don’t have a lot of money to live on” way of
accomodating your living quarters that all young, white, alternatively
oriented students will adorn as soon as they get out of their parent’s
houses or flats. Or do you know any students that furnish their flats with
wooden panels, oil paintings of alpine regions and other folklorist deco?
Exactly. Welcome to my world.
But this cover does not only show a lot of
identification possibilities, in the overall setting as well as in a lot of
details, from the 7 € carpet from Ikea to the signs stolen from trains
(yes, a lot of students still travel by train when going home from the city
for holidays) and from the gameboy on the floor to the old and small tv set,
this cover also tells a tale. A hidden one, but easy enough to detect if you
look at it closely, so it is instant gratification. I won’t tell it to you
here, but I’ll say it makes a difference if you are allowed to sleep in
the bed or on the sofa, no matter what way you look at it. Actually, this
record is full of more signifyers that talk out to the kids, for instance
those SMS-abbreviated song titles such as “yr birthday” or “mc1r”. I
have no idea what that last word means and I don’t care. If you detect a
sort of ageing misanthropism, let me tell you to be glad it is me pointing
this out, because I like this record, so I am not too harsh in getting at
what I don‘t like about it. I especially like to see that Rites Of Spring
record lying on the floor in the setting. And even if they, figuratively
speaking, planted it there for me to see, I nevertheless welcomed it.
Musically Everton does not reach up to Rites Of Spring,
but then who does? But they are good, I give them that. More relaxed and
mellow, with less of the frenetic drive that (still) pushes Rites of Spring
to their energetic maximum, but therefore with more overview and strategy,
maybe. I remember a lot of bands from around here playing the indie-pop /
alternative rock music style, where harmonious vocals and finely strung
arrangements over the basic band setting were played with a DIY-attitude,
but I don’t remember it being done so well, so flawlessly recorded and
mastered. The times and bands I am thinking of, such a production was only
possible for bands that had already had their breakthrough (and usually came
from the USA) but on “floorsleepers” everything is okay, there is
nothing to moan about. I am talking about bands like Braid, early Jets to
Brazil, Mineral and a lot of others from the other side of the Pacific and
Speed is Essential, BCBS, Nieselregen, MG Firebug, and others from closer to
home. The second generation of emo-pop, if you will and if that word exists.
All those bands that would take Dave Grohl as a producer if the opportunity
arises.
It is only at times that the energy and anger of early
emo-core (from Dag Nasty to Born Against) sparkles up here and there. More
towards the end in the heavier guitar chords of the song “loser” or in
the hoarse screeming at the beginning of the last song “bonesaw”. I like
that a lot, it made me search out my old records on ebullition records. But
then again, Everton prefer things and music to go a little mellower and less
erratic and distorted, more at ease with the world even if it is a fucked up
place to be, but as long as you have a bed to sleep on, things can’t be
all that worse, right?
Most of all I respect the seriousness that Everton put
into their songs. Of course, writing down “a song of doubt and the
problems with putting what you want to say into words” as an explanation
to a song (“untitled #3”) invites ironic remarks, but then there is
always the moment of honesty and truth when somebody opens up his heart that
you got to respect. Where ironic and sarcastic words turn against the one
who speaks them (and that is usually me) and you remember that “a bad
mouth betrays a bad mind”. This attitude gives Everton a lot of self
consciousness and conviction about what it is they do. The anthemic “in
history” tells it all with its “let’s sing one of our songs, one that
makes no sense to anyone but us and raise our glasses to the ones who made
us who we are, in memory and gratitude” which are big words and ideas to
be used for a band. I hope this band is able to fill them.
