Permanent ME
Brian Kapler and Joseph Guccione are keeping the candle burning for this interesting band. The “former members” list is getting longer, as the band has employed and lost Adam Aviles, Chris Leonard and Dan McCabe on guitar (though with different band names). Gone too are bassists Artie Fleischmann, Justin Morrell and Jon Bulzomi. Drummer Mike Fleischmann completes the list for now.
Yet, there is something here that Kapler and Guccione seem to insist on featuring.
“Allison” from After The Room Clears (2007 Stolen) stands strongly on melody, for one thing. The slight changes in guitar attack help immensely with this east coast band (Baltimore, New York).
“Stay The Night” is billed as a demo. Permanent ME is demonstrating a bit of darkness with this tune, pleading for something that young boys aren’t supposed to think about. Yeah, right!!
“Until You Leave” also from After The Room Clears (2007 Stolen) continues the level of young-boy-becoming-man sound. Chunky guitar playing is featured. “Christine” from the same CD seems to be an angry song, a pleading song and an experimental song in that the structure is just slightly different.
Permanent ME has a string of shows scheduled for Pianos in Brooklyn, New York from May 1 through May 22.
Tags: indie, indie music, Permanent ME, music, independent music
I just wasted 10 minutes of my life listening to this band, and yes, a waste it was. I try to be positive and give new bands the benefit of the doubt, but geez, can we stop having so many dime a dozen bands that all sound the same with that typical whiny lead vocal sound?
Okay…I went to their MySpace page and really tried to, as Leighdu says, give Permanent ME a fighting chance. I’m now sorry that I did.
To be fair, their guitar intro was very catchy at first, and the drumming is fine if you like somewhat standard-fare rock.
But there’s a certain….I don’t know…air of unremarkably generic staleness. This almost reminds me of all the “Hallelujah” covers that propped up after Rufus Wainwright made it into the Shrek soundtrack.
The band isn’t horrible…it does do guitars nicely…yet there’s little to really recommend this band.
” But there’s a certain….I don’t know…air of unremarkably generic staleness.”
I love that answer Fardreamer. You said it the way I wanted to say it but just couldn’t find the right words. I thought maybe I was in a stressed mood when I heard these guys the first time, so I went back to give them another shot, and nope, my opinion didn’t change.
Thanks, Leighdu. The phrase I was looking for was a bit more prosaic, maybe even pretentious. Something along the lines of a “je ne sais quois melange of mind-numbing ennui,” but that didn’t seem like something I’d say out loud, so I put down the next best thing.
Permanent ME is definitely not the worst musical act I’ve heard; William Hung from American Idol and other singers/artists I don’t like take the top Worst Acts prizes…but they just seem so, er, ho-hum to me, you know?