the post mortems
Cracked and Crooked
thepostmortems.bandcamp.com
I recently reviewed a new record from Acoustic Guillotine, who, like The Post Mortems, comprise a drummer and bassist. The Post Mortems don’t sound at all like Acoustic Guillotine; apparently even the most stripped-down of instrumentation contains many possibilities. The Post Mortems’ sound is defined by a clean bass tone and tom-heavy drums. They remind me a bit of Soundgarden: Devin Alexander’s voice has some of Chris Cornell’s operatic growl when he cuts loose. On other songs, he sounds more conventionally pop, but Al Raymond hits his drums too hard for them to ever feel like a lightweight haircut band.
While it’s easy to locate their overall sound in early ‘90s Seattle, Cracked and Crooked surprised me with “Hope Falls” which channels Radiohead and throws in some melodic curveballs. Their lyrics can be silly—“I heard the smile on your face as the sun kissed the carpet”—but I think they’re delivered with a wink. On “Brother,” Alexander’s bass is somehow transformed into an otherworldly organ sound. The song builds from an almost whispered beginning to a stadium-sized climax, with a majestic instrumental outro.
The Post Mortems avoid the two-piece trap of sonic limitation on the strength of their song-writing: Every song on Cracked and Crooked has distinctive and memorable melodies, and there’s plenty of dynamic shifts and tonal changes in the instruments and voice. What really gets me, though, is how exhilarating their sound becomes when they play fast and hard. The song “Jackalope” is the sound of a 300 kids pogoing until the floor upstairs at Gabe’s starts bouncing. And while the Post Mortems might get their name out of the autopsy suite, their music is alive and lively.
Kent Williams rides the bus.
