Pet Symmetry - Two Songs About Cars. Two Songs With Long Titles. [7-inch] (Cover Artwork)
Staff Review

Pet Symmetry

Two Songs About Cars. Two Songs With Long Titles. [7-inch] (2013)

Asian Man Records


Pet Symmetry are another band from Evan Weiss of Into It. Over It., this time with Erik Czaja and Marcus Nuccio of Dowsing, and like his other current side projects Stay Ahead of the Weather and Their / They're / There, his voice dominates the proceedings. SAOTW are more or less a pop-punk band; T/T/T are very much a post-hardcore-influenced, twinkly emo project; IIOI fall somewhere in between. That puts Pet Symmetry in an odd position, because other than being less tightly-wound and poppier than a lot of IIOI's work, Two Songs About Cars. Two Songs With Long Titles. could masquerade as a part of that band's catalogue rather easily.

Now, the similarities don't detract from the quality of these two songs; for being so prolific, Weiss remains a remarkably smart and consistent songwriter. "A Detailed and Poetic Physical Threat to the Person Who Intentionally Vandalized my 1994 Dodge Intrepid Behind Kate's Apartment" plays to his strengths, with his vocals immediately elevated over jangly guitars, distant whoas and pounding drums. The harmonic soloing towards the song's end is a nice touch, too.

"Please Don't Tell My Father That I Used His 1996 Honda Accord to Destroy The Town of Willow Grove, Pennsylvania In 2002" continues in an even airier, more open vein, and adds some Weakerthans-esque horns to the proceedings, separating it from Weiss' usual fare.

With a three-week tour alongside Sundials lined up for July, it's fair to assume that Pet Symmetry have more songs written than these two and their one other recorded song, on a recent split with Dikembe. It'll be interesting to see where they go from here, but for now, there's plenty of potential and with their collective talents, these three could write and record some dynamite tunes in the future.