Remember The Establishment

Brooklyn trio Oxford Collapse has been trying to break the East Coast shackles for most of the new millennium. What was initially a grove group headed by heavy bass licks hazed over by dance punk has evolved into harmonious upheaval of revival justification. With its mists of feedback to the catchiest hooks this side of 1983, Remember the Night Parties is potentially one of the most re-inventive alt punk movements in recent years.

Gone are the spazzy and often time chaotic ways of the bands first effort A Good Ground. In its place, Night Parties is a matriculation of talent. What was once uncut and irregular is now slick as a baby’s rear and controlled with still a burst of experimental appeal. ‘Visit Your National Parks’ is a celebration of lo-fi supremacy reminiscent of what Weezer once was and what The Shins are still trying to achieve with its flux chords and swelling licks. Skillfully timed ‘Loser City’ buzzes with passionate grooves but it’s the calm impression midway that suitably illustrates the new found level of exposed tolerance- just before the swelling storm returns with a climactic finish. Jam based ‘Return of the Bruno’ in its pop majestic move from their rural roots into a much more regional sound aptly shows the bands maturity and patience in both freeform and jams. Later efforts like ‘Molasses’ confirms the bands rigid post-punk roots as chimed guitars embark and grind littered with fluttered woodwind pitches. Closer ‘Volcano’ is possibly one of the best kisses good-night after an auditory orgy of divergence with its poppy hooks and simplistic bliss.

What Oxford is able to do on Night Parties - and exceedingly productively - is merge two opposing forms of music with its one part atmospheric space rock and equal parts punk riffs. But with such heaving structures of musical divergence, the band does get lost in itself from time to time. ‘Let’s Vanish’ and ‘Forget to Write’ are too formulated and orchestrated to conform more than the superior and barreling momentum that surrounds. ‘Kenny Can’t Afford It’ is much more like a tuning session with its striking group harmonies, whirlwind percussion, and weeping horns but simply feels like an enduring fill rather than a separate piece. And some of the comparisons to the 3-chord structure that plagued The Thermals are reminiscent here but as was the case then, it is less a problem as it is a minor gripe.

What was once a NYU baboonery is now a ripened trio of discipline and electrifying talent. They have pushed the ingredients of dance rock to a complex mixture of rich punk kicks and refined songwriting to create a superior effort to not only its predecessor but establishing a new direction for the band. Gone are the overpowering bass line twitches. In its place are basement worthy guitar growls that work with, not against and architect well thought multi layered ambient moments. From Island like quirky lyrics to the heavy handed guitars that bleed Ramones influence, Oxford Collapse has simultaneously released and reissued the American Punk Rock scene [post Reganomics era establishment and just before its entombment] from the strongholds of suburban decay.

Sean Kendall