I’ll let you in on a little secret: lazy journalists love when a band wears its influences on its sleeve. Hipper-than-thou critics savor any opportunity to dismiss a group as unoriginal, and if anything, it makes the band easy to categorize.
You can safely assume that the members of Big Science have listened their fair share of INXS and Joy Division, but it’d be too easy for me to write off their Skyscraper Sound EP as a piece of New Wave nostalgia. There are no faux-British accents here, and the band has managed to wave their post-punk flag proudly without beating you over the head with it. Sure, “Burn All Night” would fit in quite nicely on thePretty in Pink soundtrack, but it still manages to sound contemporary.
On Skyscraper Sound, Jason Hendrix, Jeremy Peña, Jason Richards and Jason Clark create an interesting balance, combining lush, complex sounds with simple hooks. “Stairs Up Stairs Down” kicks things off with an extremely danceable groove before shifting to some big harmonies.
The real gem of the EP is “Flags,” a soaring track that leaves the listener torn between rocking out or standing still and taking it all in. Each member of the band is on the top of his game here, and the vocals from Hendrix and Richards shine.
A good EP should encapsulate a group’s sound and leave people wanting more, and with its unique twists on a classic genre, Skyscraper Sound does just that.
Skyscraper Sound will be released on June 29th and you can catch Big Science at Metronome Festival on “The Punk Stage” on June 13th. – Bonnie Stiernberg