I find it really difficult to describe this album: only clichéd and reductive words come to mind. I discovered Bridge and Tunnel a few months ago, and I believe they've become my favorite band. I don't know why, but I can't stop listening to them, and that says it all.
Bridge and Tunnel are a kind of supergroup, if they can be called that, from New York: on drums there's Pat Schramm from Latterman, and the other members have also played in various local bands. There are four of them, two guys and two girls, and they combine their technical skill with compositional sincerity and an independent spirit.
"Indoor Voices" is released by No Idea, a fundamental independent label specializing in punk rock (or better said orgcore), folk punk, and screamo, in 2010. This EP is definitely not their best release, but it succeeds in giving a great idea of what the band is capable of. "Predecessors" is a fabulous opener, perfectly summarizing their sound: complex punk rock, with a post-hardcore flavor, enriched by Rachel's intricate mathy guitar phrases (many of which in tapping) and Jeff's vocal melodies reminiscent of Braid.
It's not the usual adolescent punk one might expect, four chords, unjustified anger, and nonsensical lyrics: Bridge and Tunnel know how to play, their lyrics are engaged and poetic, their shouts are those of now mature guys, angry because they realize that the precarious social situation they find themselves in will not change anytime soon... "Are we just blank slates born at the end of an arms race?" Jeff wonders in one of the tracks from their full-length, "East/West."
Intelligence, passion, heartbreaking lyrics, are the qualities that make me fall in love with a band, everything I look for in music. And Bridge and Tunnel possess them, and it fills me with joy to know that there's a band that makes music so close to me and reflects my ideals... in short, one of those things worth living for.
Tracklist
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