By BIt’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring Office Culture’s complex sophisti-pop opus ENOUGH and Bursting’s self-titled radio friendly post-hardcore EP!
Bursting – S/T
Genre: Alternative Rock, Post-Hardcore
Favorite Tracks: “Just Ghosts,” “Play It Nice”
In the early days of Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl’s hardcore background was noticeably less at odds with both his band’s own stadium production and his solidified status as rock’s elder statesman—few artists have ever written a Top 40 radio staple that goes quite as hard as “All My Life.” Sure, they smoothed out ‘90s grunge and punk music into whatever modern alternative rock became (and we can debate the quality of the music that came from that), but they also wrote “Weenie Beenie,” “Monkey Wrench,” “The Colour And The Shape,” “Walking A Line,” and plenty of songs that would be the kind of immediate crossover “pop” moment for the hardcore bands of today.
Chicago band Bursting is a collection of musicians who have performed in acts like Yautja, Stress Positions, and Thou (among many others), and they have a sound that colorfully captures some of the tension in that push-pull between punk performance and pop ambition—other sonic touchpoints undoubtedly include bands that Foo Fighters left in their wake in the ‘90s, commercially failed but critically revered major label punk signings from that era like Drive Like Jehu, Jawbox, and Jawbreaker. Across all six songs, off-kilter guitars and a buzzsaw rhythm section rise to the occasion of Kortland Chase’s mesmerizing frontman charisma—there might not be major label money on the line, but 30 years ago those vocals would’ve landed Bursting on the list of every savvy A&R person in the country. Opener “Trade in Time” is unrelenting in its speeding up and slowing down, the drums and bass a bull in a china shop for Chase’s captivating delivery. Other highlights include “Just Ghosts” and “Play it Nice,” the former offering a huge stadium rock chorus with cutting guitars that recall post-hardcore modern acts like Pile or Truth Club, the latter opening with this filthy, bat-out-of-Hell bass part that is one of the most immediate “Hell yeah” starts to a song all year. BURSTING is one of the most promising debut EPs I’ve heard all year—the major label money might have dried up for a project like this, but that doesn’t mean someone shouldn’t give them some indie label money stat! You can hear it over on Bandcamp! [CJ Simonson]
Office Culture – ENOUGH
Genre: Sophisti-Pop
Favorite Tracks: “Hat Guy,” “Counting Game,” “Enough”
In a jazzy corner of the New York City indie circuit, Office Culture has gradually ascended to become royalty. The band pulls from the suave legacies of Steely Dan and Prefab Sprout, offsetting ornate arrangements with wry lyricism. Fronted by music journalist-turned-songwriter Winston Cook Wilson, the full lineup comprises a cast of Brooklyn scene luminaries who tend to orbit the bookish label Ruination Record Co. and tasteful venues such as The Owl and Tradesman. Office Culture’s prior albums have been shaped by draining train delays and jam sessions squeezed around the merciless challenges posed by metropolitan existence; it’s a formula that has allowed Office Culture to grace bills at buttoned-up spaces across the Northeast without compromising a penchant for everyman spunk and goofy pessimism.
Office Culture’s fourth full-length, ENOUGH, is an epic, endearingly over-the-top cementation of intent—a palpably obsessive effort with a nondescript photo of a pelican slapped on the cover that opens with a neurotic rumination on wearing hats out as a balding man. The album features a host of peers, including Alena Spanger, The Bird Calls, and Jackie West. All the loungey AM trappings of past Office Culture albums are on clear display, this time infused with a confessional quality that lends the whole thing a sense of diaristic intimacy. Clocking in at 73 minutes, ENOUGH is a willful homage to the bygone heyday of elaborate double LPs. But it leans into a cheekiness that could have only emerged during an era shaped by a search for disgruntled humor within ceaseless bouts of doom scrolling. Chuckle and wring your hands to ENOUGH on Bandcamp. [Ted Davis]
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