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Young Widows / Pelican

Split [7 inch] (2009)
Temporary Residence

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: ChadReligion
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on August 21st 2009

With a compelling intro of drums, a droning bass and a creepy guitar tone, "Mid-Western," by the unpredictable Young Widows, seems like a visual-type soundtrack for some sort of terrible, unspeakable beast, tearing through branches and brush, searching -- ready to kill for the feed.

Consider the lyrics now. Guitarist/vocalist, Evan Patterson has changed up his frequent raspy voice for a looming, yet gruff sound on this track as he groans "Where is the feeling? There is no feeling. You're right I see it, keep on preaching." Soon after, the guitars lash out and the cymbals crash as Evan bellows "The world looks bigger, when you're stuck just in this one place." The Louisville, KY three-piece has yet to relate to such angst, I'm sure, but does so well in describing it, especially when declaring "Cut off our ties to the East."

This is one of Young Widows' darkest tracks, and plays as key that Young Widows have no shape or specifics to their style, except that they never cease to bring a very interesting sound. "Mid-Western" fits perfectly for this split that is Part 3 in a four-part series, as well as acting as a piece in the puzzle that forms the face of a monster that the music must visually suggest.

On the flip-side is the mighty Pelican, who have seem to take a step back into the sludge with "Inch Above Sand." The onslaught starts with an epic spread of guitars that sound very reminiscent of the Isis track, "From Sinking," but then gradually builds a hook, and draws you in, only as Pelican have been known so greatly to do. It seems the band has mastered being so natural with the heaviness, after the somewhat light-hearted City of Echoes, and brings back much of the grittiness and crunch of Pink Mammoth and March Into the Sea.

A very novel similarity between both tracks is that they both end at an abrupt stop, almost at a last gasp of air, and perhaps a metaphor as the last glimpse of life from the prey of the vicious monster's soundtrack.

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Chadreligion (August 26, 2009)

My gosh... You guys are right.... I must have been high when I was looking over the production notes....
Why the fuck didn't you guys do the review instead???

russe11 (August 26, 2009)

shit. your right, my apologies to the reviewer if i came across as a bit caustic. for what it's worth, i didn't know the bassist's name so i looked it up on the internets and it identified geoff patton as the bassist. my bad. i'm not good with names but i'm a big fan of this band and i just found it a bit odd that the reviewer didn't know it was the bassist singing.

Lloyd_Dobler (August 24, 2009)

"to the reviewer: the reason the vocals sound "changed" is because that's not evan singing. i don't know how you can be a fan of young widows and not recognize the voice of bassist geoff paton. it's pretty distinctive. he has taken lead vocals at least once on all of their releases."

This is an an awesome fail because it attempts to call out one error using another bigger error. Geoff Paton was the original drummer. Not only is he not the bassist, he never sang, and he hasn't been in the band in several years now.

This song is sang by bassist Nick Thieneman.

russe11 (August 24, 2009)

to the reviewer: the reason the vocals sound "changed" is because that's not evan singing. i don't know how you can be a fan of young widows and not recognize the voice of bassist geoff paton. it's pretty distinctive. he has taken lead vocals at least once on all of their releases.

sexualsunshine (August 24, 2009)

Pelican used to be really good. They need get heavy again and drop all the post-rock shit.

Young Widows are just fucking killer. Always.

ffwoodycooks (August 23, 2009)

"young widows aren't really unpredictable in that they always sound like a 90s noise rock revival band."

good, we could use more of those

i still need to check this out.

Chadreligion (August 22, 2009)

haha, oops... that's the second time I've said they were from Richmond...sorry about that

bigwig1022 (August 22, 2009)

young widows aren't really unpredictable in that they always sound like a 90s noise rock revival band.
waaaaaa fucking waaaaaaaa. so most of the music on this site is somewhat if not totally reminiscent of something from the 90s
not a bad record

elephantdwarf (August 22, 2009)

young widows are from louisville, ky. not richmond. pelican would be better if they didn't have such a terrible drummer.

DrGunn (August 21, 2009)

young widows aren't really unpredictable in that they always sound like a 90s noise rock revival band. i still rather like them though. used to really like pelican until i saw them live and they nearly put me to sleep.