Young People are an L.A. band that moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn (a band moving to Brooklyn? ya don’t say!). The first time I heard them was on The Believer Music Issue CD in 2004 with a small song called “N’er Do Well.” It was a short song, under a minute I believe, but it had such a rich, and for lack of a better word, textured, quality about it that it became one of my favorite songs for a while. With their new EP Five Sunsets in Four Days Young People proves they can keep making great noise in a small space.
Young People’s sound has been created by pure innovation, and the combination of several musical forms. When bands do this it can go either one of two ways. Sometimes you up with the ugly results of some member of the group saying, “Why don’t we put a synthesizer over a drum beat?” (hello disco), or worse the result of some genius who says, “Why don’t we let Kevin Federline rap?” (hello Hell). Other times you end up with brilliance, a la Sonic Youth, who clearly serves as an influence in Young People’s sound. Their combinations of musical styles compliment each other and blend rather than clashing due to their differences. They know how to draw out just the parts that meld. In most songs Katie Eastburn’s gospel wail emerges from behind the curtain of sound hung up by Jeff Rosenberg and Jarret Silberman’s heavily played guitar and drums, both chameleon-esq in the way they change from song to song. On “Hot Horse” the guitar is driving and distorted and the drums keep a steady backbeat. In “The Mountain” the guitars toy with distortion and feedback (a little hat tip, I suppose, to Sonic Youth) and leave a trail of notes littered about, while Silberman rattles off a fast, clacking beat on the rim of one of his drums. “Stay Awake” has a tribal drumbeat and Rosenberg playing straight surf guitar. The only really consistent thing from song to song, besides the quality, is Eastburn’s voice, which doesn’t seem like it should match the music being played behind her as well as it does. If anything it sounds more like she culled these shifting, loud guitars, and Gregorian drums from the earth with the strength and conviction of her wailing plea to the gods.
It’s hard to find an abundance of information on Young People, since a Google search brings up everything from young people’s presses, to blogs from baby boomers complaining about the state of the country (like they were so great with their Ray Bans and coke habits). They do have a website at www.ilikeyoungpeople.com, which I originally avoided thinking it was a NAMBLA thing. Rest assured, it’s not.
All of the songs on this EP are under three minutes, and most of them are under two and half. The whole things clocks in at just over fourteen minutes, so if you go buy it right now you can listen to it on your lunch break with your sandwich and juice box. |