The final installment in Into It. Over It.'s Twelve Towns project concludes with this solid split with Such Gold (next up, figurehead Evan Weiss will drop both a compilation of all his songs in the series, and a proper long-playing debut).

Both "Washington, DC" and "Portland, OR" were recorded way back in a period spanning December 2009 to March 2010. So is it backhanded at all to call them two of Into It. Over It.'s better tracks to date? While neither provide a serious musical jump away from Weiss' earlier solo musings (52 Weeks), they're jams. The former's the best track left off Piebald's If It Weren't for Venetian Blinds It Would Be Curtains for Us All (maybe with less jarring vocals than Travis Shettel's piercing wail), and "Portland, OR" takes American Football's playful guitar atmospheres and rewrites them across a short two minutes with warm, inviting melodies. It makes for one of the better volumes in this series.

Such Gold provide "Minstrels" and "The World That You Live In" on the other side. The band's infusion of aggressive pop-punk and melodic hardcore is far more medium-paced and calculated than usual, with a greater emphasis on vocals and guitars than on their past material. Frontman Ben Kotin's delivery is mostly cleaner and more deliberate; where he used to sound like he couldn't get it all off his chest fast enough, he shows off a new found sense of restraint here. It's a bit strange, but it works, and only serves to give the band a more unique identity. He's certainly as bitter as ever, though, conversationally offering in "Minstrels": "I thought that music was an expression of one's soul. / I guess that means that yours was sold," and letting loose for a cathartic glance that closes "The World That You Live In" (spoiler alert: he's not feelin' it). All the while, the band provide a bed of ever-dynamic, noodling guitars, like A Wilhelm Scream playing their riffs at a third of the speed. The tracks give off a decidedly more poppy indie-punk vibe, but it's an interesting progression from Such Gold for sure.

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split EP