Me You Us Them

If Me You Us Them is going to experiment with sound they’ re making sure that we all come along with them. The Brooklyn band comes out of the same Sonic Youth-inspired scene every other Brooklyn shoegazer comes from; but they’re also hinting at ways to expand it. And while they didn’t break rank completely during the album release party for their debut, Post-Data, they did show how to in the future.

Ryan Reesey was a left hook of a frontman. He’s only 5-foot-5 and sang with machine-like delivery and cool detachment from the lyrics. Then he started yelling and that disconnect was broken. Ethereal guitars and aggressive screams aren’t usually paired together but it’s just the most obvious way Me You Us Them strayed from the norm.

Their sheer accessibility was just as novel. As much as Me You Us Them looks at their feet for inspiration, they look towards bands like Nirvana for substance. “Any Time” took that familiar soft then loud move but invigorated it with a distorted, otherworldly edge. And as old-school as it may be, having a real drummer in Zach Eichenhorn instead of a laptop feels fresh.

But instead of continuing pressing on genre conventions, the set’s second half went back toward more stock material. They brought their guitars into the ether on songs like “Drugs,” which was nice, but nothing unique. Maybe they were trying not to lose any new fans pushing the boundaries, but this early in their careers just reaching those boundaries was good enough. As long as they don’t wait for us to catch up to them forever, it was a fine show of things to come.

What let Me You Us Them get unconventional in the first place were openers Appomattox and Monogold. As the least forceful, Monogold was a perfect starting point. Complex songs like “Foxgloves” unfolded slowly, giving us time to find a comfortable place within their warm shoegaze.

As soon as we were there, Appomattox yanked us right out of it. The indie punk group is frequently booked alongside Me You Us Them and it is easy to understand why. While the latter looks toward rock for inspiration, Appomattox looks right back. What they found was a way to loosen the reins on their guitars, centering on bassist David Nurmi’s ability to hold songs together. More than just a grounding point, his bass gave songs identity by going straight past the noise. It wasn’t a full revolution, but it is a good group for Me You Us Them to bend the rules alongside of. -

-Michael Ronan - beyondrace.com

Post Data is a mix of industrial punk, dirty shoegaze, new wave and even grunge that sounds as much a part of the great sounds coming from Brooklyn as it does entirely removed from it. For sake of comparison, the music sounds along the lines of Nirvana and later Sonic Youth, with noisy nods to My Bloody Valentine and Polvo, and even some At the Drive In. Its a listenable rock record that touches on all the cool sounds of the time and doesn’t pay tribute to any of them, leaving us with record that stands on it’s own.

Post-Data a very solid debut record from this Brooklyn trio. I’ve been listening to it quite a bit lately.
I recommend the following tracks: Re-Entry, Big Time, As of Now, Any Time, Me You Us Them. - mediocremusicblog.com

In all my shoegazing discoveries this year, none has satisfied me to such an extent as Me You Us Them‘s debut LP has. This album sounds NEW from the first track in, and you had better get your rating finger ready for some serious 5-star clicking. Order in a neck brace as well, the riffs and melodies have a hook enough to get your head bobbing through-out the record till its done.

My first impression of Post-Data had me preparing myself for post-punk onslaught, but as I listened to the album over and over, the dense chords lying in the back made their way up and I was introduced to the wall of sound reminiscent of I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness‘ textural driving buildups. There’s enough swerve in the guitars to fill up your brain’s drone capacitors only to be complimented by the driving grooves that keep your feet busy for, say, about the length of the entire album?

The album’s only just started and already “Any Time’ has you hooked – full of enough key elements to keep the gazer in you more than satisfied. Elastic chords suspending you from the pivot point of the beat while the bass provides all the tension. Each track that follows builds up your appetite for the next. There’s a distinct two chord swerved out riff which I find myself holding on to as a bookmark for each track.

The track that instantaneously stands out is “Drugs’ – it takes you up in with the atmospheric sound wash in the back only to drive you to the edge of a cliff where you hear the words “chin up child, don’t give up”, and it just keeps getting higher from there on. “iQuit’ takes the role of building up to the self titled track, and here’s something interesting – the groove hasn’t let go of you and we’re about 7 tracks down.

It’s this constant driving force in their sound that keeps pushing you further and further still, till you activate your drift and you’re caught in the current . Post-Data transitions from light to dark as you progress from the first track on to the last, but it doesn’t leave you in the shadows once you’re done cruising your way to the end. It only deprives you of their sound when it closes and there really is nothing much you can do but rewind and find yourself stuck in this endless circle of Me You Us Them.

The graphic designer in me really likes the whole retro-modern album art. The hand made silk screened cover is made to look like an old floppy disk, with the pixelation on the record visible through the negative spaces. It’s a perfect depiction of nostalgia and innovation, which is pretty much the sound this band has managed to create. I’ve checked on all the boxes on my shoegaze list and given 5 stars for each track… EACH TRACK! Post-Data is a compilation of all your favorite songs that you haven’t heard yet. I’ve only managed to catch a few videos off of youtube and I can clearly see them rocking out major shows pretty soon in the future! Go ahead check them out yourself… - agleteaters.wordpress.com

It’s really been a great year for music. We’ve waxed poetic about great bands like The Prids, so when we heard about a band that was hotly tipped by them, we scrambled to our 8-track players and turned the volume up to 11. New York City continues to churn out a zillion bandsthatpitchforkloves every day. So when we tell you that Me You Us Them is our favorite new band from the NYC, we recognize the magnitude of the compliment. Kevin Shields could only dream of creating a masterpiece like this, which blends his MBV sense of vertigo with a charmingly modern sense of melody. Album of the year? Pfft, we’re placing bets on where it will place on our albums of the decade list in 2020.
Hey, look who’s back? It’s Ravin doing the honors with a band we truly love.

Any Time by Me You Us Them

TDOA: So for those who haven’t heard your awesomeness, who are you guys? How did the band come about and how’s the journey been so far?

Ian: An account of Me You Us Them so far…
Ryan and I began playing together in a band started by him and his wife at the time. I was our drummer, Ryan played guitar. That band broke up for terribly cliche and predictable reasons. The 3 of us that were not Ryan’s then wife regrouped, naming ourselves after a song in our repertoire that we had been striving to get right since the old band. So our lofty goal in the beginning was to finish one song (incidently, that line-up never actually played “Me You Us Them”). During the first year of MYUT, I remained on drums, and Ryan added singing to his duties. We wrote nearly an entire record, then our bassist disappeared. He didn’t quit, we didn’t ask him to leave, we just never saw or heard from him again. Minor setback. So I grabbed the bass, and we decided on an entirely different creative approach.
Ryan and I continued as a duo, becoming more of a democratic writing team, and sharing and trading responsibilities across the board. We ignored the fact that there were only two of us and started writing/recording whatever we felt like hearing in our songs, with no real regard for how in the hell the two of us would ever perform it. When we began playing shows again, we used a laptop with programmed and pre-recorded drum tracks and synths. Our first EP was released during this stage of the “band”.
In the months following the completion of the EP, we found a home on Brooklyn label Triple Down Records, courted our first drummer Jimi into the band, and began working on our full-length. We spent nearly a year playing a ton of shows and writing the record, then almost another year finishing the record, during which time we lost Jimi to the West Coast, brah.
After Jimi’s departure, we asked our good friend (and “Post-Data” drum tech) Zach to fill in temporarily. He’s still around, and we couldn’t be more excited about the current state of the band.

TDOA: Post-Data is pretty much the perfect amalgamation of every alt-indie, sub-genre I grew up loving, from grunge to brit-pop to shoegaze to post-punk, post-rock and math-rock, with a little ambient and IDM thrown in the mix. I’m curious to know how you would describe the band’s musical etymology…

Ian: Well thanks, man. I guess I didn’t realize we’d covered that much territory. A lot of those influences are there, and we try not to deny any one of them when writing a song. We also don’t actively seek to adhere to or destroy any musical boundaries, which are usually possessed inherently and/or accidentally, anyway. If anything, we always try to really own and fully occupy our boundaries in terms of songwriting, embrace who we are, and not be dishonest.
Tongue in cheek, we refer to ourselves as a “post-data rock band”, a term after which we obviously named our record. It isn’t so much descriptive of our sound, but of our process, and the timing of the release. A good friend of ours has baptized us “indie-ustrial”. Not to be confused with “Indi-ustrial”, a reference to India’s industrial sector.

TDOA: You guys are from Brooklyn, which has produced some of the most dreadful, overhyped, underwhelming bands I have heard in recent memory. [WARNING: The
opinions of this interviewer do not necessarily reflect those of TDOA Online Music Group, Inc. :D ] I’m curious to hear your perception of the scene there…
Or alternatively, since I know you might not want to shit where you eat, perhaps you could suggest a few local bands that you think deserve more attention than
they’re receiving?

Ian: The NYC spectrum is extremely crowded, and it’s very tough for us to determine where we fit into it, or even if we’re part of it. I think a lot of our friends in bands here feel that way. We’re fortunate enough to be part of a very supportive, eclectic label, which at times functions more like a collective. A lot of the bands/artists under the Triple Down umbrella are friends, play shows together, share ideas, help each other, hang out. None of us sound alike, but we’re all coming from the same place, have respect f - thedumbingofamerica.net

Referências: Banda americana do Brooklyn, New York. Shoegaze, indie-rock. Excelente banda formada por Ryan Reesey, Ian Ljungquist e Zach Eichenhorn. Recebemos seu material direto da gravadora Triple Down Records e fiquei impressionado com o som dos caras. Realmente um dos melhores shoegazers da nova geração. O disco abre com "Any Time" com sua guitarra distorcida no tempo, segue com "Wish You Luck" e "Drugs", lembrando MBV, "iQuiet" é para pular intensamente e "Me You Us Them" é perfeita como a banda. Há uma crítica que a aproxima do The Prids. Para ser um dos melhores discos do ano. Obrigatório. - amorlouco.blogspot.com

The final performance of the night came from Brooklyn’s Me You Us Them. Not the slightest thrown off by the fact that their laptop wasn’t working, this lively three-piece played so well “punk rock style,” in the words of lead singer/guitarist Ryan Reesey, that you’d never know that’s not their pathos. Me You Us Them’s melodious, uptempo songs suck you in with wailing guitars, groovy bass lines and driving rhythms — a delicious blend of post-punk, shoegaze and 1990s alt-rock that recalls acts from the Pixies to My Bloody Valentine and Swervedriver. Bassist Ian Ljungquist handled backing vocals, as well as lead on a few songs, while Zach Eichenhorn flailed away behind the drum kit. Me You Us Them’s full-length debut, Post-Data (Tripple Down Records) was released recently, but their set on Tuesday included even newer, not yet released material, such as the song “Research.” Also in the set were “iQuit,” “Iron Tongue,” and the Nirvana-esque “Pretty Nettles,” and set closer “Wish You Luck.” - sentimentalistmag.com

It takes a lot more than uninspired keyboarding and a banal nod to the music of the 80s to cause a commotion. Indie rock and all of its once lovely subgenres have fallen flat simply because it’s easier to follow a proven formula for success than it is to push conventions and rock the boat a wee bit. Thankfully, and kind of ironically, Brooklyn-based trio Me Us You Them has managed to circumvent the predictability of noise to produce an album so full of shoegazing goodness it almost makes you want to squee.

Post-Data is a stunning amalgamation of all the best parts of shoegaze, post-punk, indie rock and New Wave. Post-Data isn’t a redundant knock-off of the music it wishes it could be, but rather an album that envelopes and transforms the past into the future. “Drugs” has an eerily cosmic reverb that creates a spooky, yet soothing melody. The music is reminiscent of the dreamy distortion of bands like Lush or Catherine Wheel. Whereas “Re-entry” is a faster-paced pop tune with lots of rumbling drum beats, angular guitar riffs and catchy lyrics. It’d be a fun song to dance along to – assuming you’re into that sort of thing. Post-Data is a rarity among the riff raff and has the potential to be the kind of album that remains as poignant today as it very well might many years from now.
-- Brigitte B. Zabak - amplifier.blogspot.com

If you happen to be one of the many rabid music fans that frequent Audio Current, you’ll already know how scrupulous we are about the quality of music posted here. Only the very best albums, from start to finish. We use an elaborate tier system to rank the albums in consideration and if they can climb our pyramid to the top, passing through a gauntlet of scrutiny and all the stars align, it might become a post. So, when it comes to the countless album submissions we receive, it gets discouraging because our bar is set so high. This made me very excited to see Me You Us Them’s Post-Data come through the pipeline, as it already topped our shoegaze pyramid and in line to be posted.

Post-Data opens with the smooth, melodic shoegaze of ‘Any Time’ and ‘Re-entry’. The contrast between buttery vocals and squelching, guitar bends seems perfectly engineered to send a shockwave of sonic pleasure through your body, standing all hair at attention.

“La dot dot da de de da…”, ‘Pretty Nettles’ is even more brilliant than The Dandy Warhols / Autolux blend it conjures.

The aptly named ‘Big Time’ explodes in a kaleidoscope of sound. It’s driving drumbeat chugs like a roller coaster ascending to the heavens. Then, with hands in the air, it drops, a massive bass line groove and driving drum beat drenched in a shimmering prism of delayed guitar. The resulting effect is a mind-blowing, ocular orgasm or eargasm!

Now our submissions bar has been set with this ace slab of shoegaze. If you think your album is on par with Me You Us Them’s Post-Data and want to see if it will make Audio Current’s cut, send it to us at hello@audiocurrent.net.

- blog.audiocurrent.net

Combining the messy grit of Archers of Loaf with a well-executed melodic sensibility, New York’s Me You Us Them has crafted a memorable debut with EP-Blue. Apparently part of a trilogy of similar records, this disc comes packaged in a hand-stamped paper bag, lending a DIY feel to the proceedings.

It’s hard to believe all this noise emanates from just two guys - guitarist/singer Ryan Reesey and bassist/laptopist Ian Ljunquist. The EP attacks right off the bat with raucous “Iron Tongue,” a slathering cutlet of White Trash Heroes era Archers of Loaf. The slamming walls of guitar and the machine-gun drums are the main attraction here, but Reesey’s slick vocals enunciate the Rob Crow-esque chorus formidably. The off-kilter guitars of early AoL, meanwhile, pervade “I’ll Pick Up Your Problems at the Baggage Claim,” building a pretty little noise-rock song; sadly, the vocals seemed a little drowned by the rest of the instruments, but this doesn’t ruin an already solid song. Last in line on this too-brief EP is the more experimental “Me You Us Them,” which is a fun bit of momentum but a bit shy on the melodic front. These guys may not yet have the lasting power of Archers of Loaf at their peak, but they kick a lot more ass than most rock bands around these days.

Indieville.com - Indieville.com

Borough: Bushwick, Brooklyn
Fun Fact: Lead singer Ryan Reesey recently starred in a commercial for Guitar Hero.
Why They're Worth Watching: Me You Us Them meld an intense blend of distorted, off-kilter guitar riffs with searing vocal melodies, rendering them one of the most memorable shoe-gaze groups in recent memory.
For Fans Of: Sonic Youth, Jimmy Eat World, The Jesus & Mary Chain

Tucked away in a booth at a Williamsburg watering hole, a few feet away from one of Brooklyn's more rowdy election night Obama victory parties, the members of Me You Us Them consider how the current state of politics have influenced their musical approach. "It's certainly affected us," guitarist/vocalist Ryan Reesey says. "You actually have to get off your ass and do something."
That same do-it-yourself attitude has driven the band to overcome a number of obstacles, most notably the sudden vanishing of their first bassist, Kentaro Takahashi, who just mysteriously "disappeared one day." Undaunted, Reesey and bassist Ian Ljungquist cut their debut EP as a two-piece with close friend and producer Ryan Steele at his make-shift Brooklyn studio. Their inaugural EP, matter-of-factly titled EP 1, includes standouts like the dynamic and snarky "I'll Pick Up Your Problems at the Baggage Claim" and closing track "Me You Us Them," which combines fuzzy riffs with an up-tempo drum beat and computer-generated synths to create dreamy layers of melodic dissonance.

Though rooted in shoe-gazing tradition, the band's sound is developing even today: The original duo replaced their drum machine with an actual human, NYU student James "Jimi" Jano, about five months ago. Ljungquist says that the addition has led them to learn more about their own songs, and the band is currently prepping its first full-length as a trio, with a Triple Down Records release scheduled for 2009.

Me You Us Them understand they're among an overwhelming number of artists producing music in an age when anyone can conceive and capture an idea instantaneously thanks to digital technology. It's a tradeoff, Jano explains. “There's a lot more garbage floating around, [but there are] also a lot more gems as well,” he says. And even in a squalid music industry and economy, the group seems poised to carry on. "You can cut off my legs, but my hands will still make music," Ljungquist says. "They don’t know what else to do." - Pastemagazine.com

Borough: Bushwick, Brooklyn
Fun Fact: Lead singer Ryan Reesey recently starred in a commercial for Guitar Hero.
Why They're Worth Watching: Me You Us Them meld an intense blend of distorted, off-kilter guitar riffs with searing vocal melodies, rendering them one of the most memorable shoe-gaze groups in recent memory.
For Fans Of: Sonic Youth, Jimmy Eat World, The Jesus & Mary Chain

Tucked away in a booth at a Williamsburg watering hole, a few feet away from one of Brooklyn's more rowdy election night Obama victory parties, the members of Me You Us Them consider how the current state of politics have influenced their musical approach. "It's certainly affected us," guitarist/vocalist Ryan Reesey says. "You actually have to get off your ass and do something."
That same do-it-yourself attitude has driven the band to overcome a number of obstacles, most notably the sudden vanishing of their first bassist, Kentaro Takahashi, who just mysteriously "disappeared one day." Undaunted, Reesey and bassist Ian Ljungquist cut their debut EP as a two-piece with close friend and producer Ryan Steele at his make-shift Brooklyn studio. Their inaugural EP, matter-of-factly titled EP 1, includes standouts like the dynamic and snarky "I'll Pick Up Your Problems at the Baggage Claim" and closing track "Me You Us Them," which combines fuzzy riffs with an up-tempo drum beat and computer-generated synths to create dreamy layers of melodic dissonance.

Though rooted in shoe-gazing tradition, the band's sound is developing even today: The original duo replaced their drum machine with an actual human, NYU student James "Jimi" Jano, about five months ago. Ljungquist says that the addition has led them to learn more about their own songs, and the band is currently prepping its first full-length as a trio, with a Triple Down Records release scheduled for 2009.

Me You Us Them understand they're among an overwhelming number of artists producing music in an age when anyone can conceive and capture an idea instantaneously thanks to digital technology. It's a tradeoff, Jano explains. “There's a lot more garbage floating around, [but there are] also a lot more gems as well,” he says. And even in a squalid music industry and economy, the group seems poised to carry on. "You can cut off my legs, but my hands will still make music," Ljungquist says. "They don’t know what else to do." - Pastemagazine.com

http://nyc.thedelimagazine.com/node/1267

Me You Us Them is the name of the latest addition to the NYC shoegazer scene. This band's impressive wall of guitars rivals in "My-Bloody-Valentine-ness" that of Asobi Seksu's first album - I'd recommend any follower of the toe staring sonic cult to check out these guys' tunes. (By the way, why they call it shoegazer and not toestarer is beyond me). The record release show is April 25th at The Studio @ Webster Hall in NYC.

The Deli NYC
http://nyc.thedelimagazine.com/node/1267 - The Deli NYC

http://killredrocketrecords.blogspot.com/2010/03/me-you-us-them-post-data.html

Brooklyn based Me You Us Them released their debut ep sometime around 2008 and I was instantly hooked on their sound. After that time the band did a couple of tours, changed from a drum machine to a drummer and then to another drummer, played around NYC, and worked steadily on their debut. The result is the kind of debut every bands wants to make; a strong record that stays consistently good throughout and leaves a lasting impression.

Post Data is a mix of industrial punk, dirty shoegaze, new wave and even grunge that sounds as much a part of the great sounds coming from Brooklyn(Battles, A Place to Bury Strangers)as it does entirely removed from it. For sake of comparison, the music sounds along the lines of Nirvana and later Sonic Youth, with noisy nods to My Bloody Valentine and Polvo, and even some At the Drive In. Its a listenable rock record that touches on all the cool sounds of the time and doesn't pay tribute to any of them, leaving us with record that stands on it's own.
-Preston Maddox, Killredrocket
http://killredrocketrecords.blogspot.com/2010/03/me-you-us-them-post-data.html - killredrocketrecords.com

Our friends at Triple Down Records are dropping the latest from Brooklyn based Me You Us Them next month. Lucky us, we got a sneak peak at the master cuts before it hits the shelves. MYUT pumps out their shoegaze, post-punk sound throughout the whole record without faltering. On the single “Any Time” the angular guitar riffs and catchy vocals grab you from square one. “Wish You Luck” is my personal favorite. This piece’s straight ahead rhythms and twisted riffs are deserving of a rock fist and will be on repeat in your player. Me You Us Them pays their dues to their predecessors, but have a very forward thinking sound. Post Data is thick with solid grooves, washy textures and raw energy. A definite must listen.

Cunei Media
http://cuneimedia.com/uncategorized/myutpostdata - CuneiMedia.com

Today I’m gonna tell you guys about this sweet band from Brooklyn called Me You Us Them (MYUT)

MYUT are a 3 piece rock band from Bushwick. Its members, Ryan Reesey, Ian Ljungquist and Zach Eichenhorn, fuse indie rock and pop-rock with an edge that will never go soft or limp. The group, signed on the Triple Down label, have thus far released an EP, appropriately titled EP #1 and have been busy in the studio these past months finishing their debut LP, Post-Data, which is released today.

Between 2008, when their first EP was released, and now, the band has refined and tweaked their sound to give you something that is worthy of repeat. Where Ep #1 found the band taking a harder approach to their rock sound, Post-Data takes it down a bit, but still manages to keep that bite that never gets dull– think a punk ethos with the haziness and distance of a dream. The album may seem dark and moody on first listen, but after multiple times you start to realize that it has this very uplifting feel to it– a great album to transition between the seasons.

The guitars on this album rock, and when you mix it with these ambient type of effects they use, you get these interesting guitar rhythms, textures and tones. Another effect that predominately makes an appearance on this album is this pitch shifting effect that just “bends” the music in all the right directions. The other thing that really shined for me on this album was the vocal work from Reesey, the tone of his voice adds this friendly type of sound which is a counterpoint to the moody music below it. His sound and delivery has all the workings of pop magic and I think it really gives the album and them the sound that will differentiate them from the “indie” crowd.

My favorite track on the album was “Drugs”. From minute 1 you get transported into this dreamy ballad where the world just seems to float by, you are so high that no one can touch you. Then when the chorus drops with “Cheer Up Child Don’t Give Up, Cheer up it’s just the drugs” you are just wowed till the very end. This track definitely shows their shoe-gaze vibe. But just when you thought they would go soft, you get hit with a track like “As Of Now” which takes you straight back down to the ground. The track is fast, loud and above all catchy as hell.

I can definitely say that Post-Data finds the band discovering an unique sound and really pushing the limits of indie rock. Highly recommend you check it out. The album is available digitally and on CD, which includes an immediate download of the album. Each CD is packaged in a limited-edition, hand silk-screened floppy disk, and includes an insert with the full album art. (if you don’t know what a floppy disk is, look it up!) - BoomBoomChik.com

I can’t for the life of me remember what led me to end up sifting through the Triple Down Records website, home of Me You Us Them. All I can recall is that it most definitely was not because of these guys, but eventually I ended up getting hooked on a couple samples from them. One being “Iron Tongue” from their EP in 08, however I’ve come to realize how inferior that song is when stacked up against practically everything contained on their debut LP Post-Data, which has just recently come out

My initial impression of Me You Us Them was that there were certainly some elements of Polvo like tone mangling here, however upon repeated listens of Post-Data it becomes clearer that the band is more so fixated on the queasy guitar warbling notorious within the shoegaze set. They’ve also intertwined this with a bit of a technology or digital age theme it appears. They further on that idea a bit by packaging the album in a hand silk screened floppy disk (remember those?). And while I didn’t expect something that borrows so heavily from what is often a saturated genre reaching for ideas, Post-Data sounds incredibly fresh with more catchy tones and flourishes than I am able to count. Occasionally it reminds me of what many Japanese bands have been producing and working with in terms of merging the lush guitar tones of shoegaze with electronic “high tech” imagery and sounds. But enough with that, hear it for yourself…

The album is currently available through Triple Down Records both physically and digitally for those concerned about that. I would definitely recommend picking it up if you enjoy what you hear above. - Builtonaweakspot.com

Thanks to two fantastic independent bands, who also happen to be good friends, the modern shoegaze sound is born. The Prids, Portland’s DIY darlings who recently signed to Velvet Blue Music and are set to release Chronosynclastic on Friday, and Me You Us Them, the best new bank out of NYC (signed to Triple Down Records), have taken the sound developed in the mid to late 80’s by bands like The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Cocteau Twins, and My Bloody Valentine and blended it with 90’s alt-rock and the resurgent sound of dancerock and Britpop to create a fresh new take on a genre that hasn’t had a spotlight shown on it in well over a decade.

Each of these bands has their own sound with the pop sensibilities of The Prids often taking forefront in their sound, while Me You Us Them forays into electro sounds and a harder edge. With their current releases, each explores a different piece of the shoegaze puzzle and varied points in their musical careers.

The Prids’ Chronosynclastic is their 3rd full length and somewhere around their 10th release. These Portland scene vets have been together since 1998 and have honed their craft and their sound over this span. The band is fronted by David Frederickson and Mistina La Fave, former couple who has remained friends and produced music together for over 15 years. The supporting cast has changed from time to time over the years, but right now includes Lee Zeman on drums and Maile Arruda on keyboards. The current foursome puts forth on their new release a sound that harkens back to the early shoegaze days, but incorporates a sound that is very reminiscent of UK 90’s indie rockers Catherine Wheel (notably 1997’s Adam and Eve). The hooks are catchy, the layers are enchanting, and the vocals are captivating. On a few occassions the guitars truly shred, but most of the time the sound is more whimsical than it is brutal.

Me You Us Them’s Post-Data is their debut full-length. Released on Triple Down Records, it features some of the best packaging in the history of music. The album is housed in a light gray 5.25” floppy disk shell, with printed artwork and booklet inside that is visible through the holes of the cover. If this packaging doesn’t wow the discerning prospective fan, the music will. Hard to believe the band has not been releasing albums for years, this debut is tight, well produced, and aggressive in all the right places. Riding the coattails of their friends from Portland, the band sent this reviewer an email stating that they saw an earlier piece on The Prids on the site and wanted to know if they could send some material to be considered for review. Upon receipt of the album, thoughts turned to excitement and thankfulness that the band sought out the review, because it’s guaranteed to enter heavy rotation for years to come.

thepaintedman rates this: ??????????

Chronosynclastic is a strong album cover to cover, track after track. It delivers layers upon layers of sound on each track, but where the album shines brightest is at the start and finish. The first few tracks; “Hide Your Thoughts” , “When I Look” , “Waste Our Time” ; all are wonderfully crafted tracks that have simultaneously an indie credibility and a radio-friendly sound. Mistina’s pretty vocals are highlighted with David’s lo-fi vocals and frantic guitar playing on “When I Look” making it the most enjoyable track on the album. However, unlike many albums with their best tracks at the front of the album, the rest of the album doesn’t fall off and disappear due to the best tracks being at the front.

Finishing strong, The Prids show off their ballad skills with the closing track “Tonight, October” . David’s vocals sound very real and raw on the closer, which sounds to have an alt-country influence and would likely appeal to that crowd more than one may guess by the rest of the album.

Despite a large body of work, it seems quite likely that this new release from the Portland scene veterans will showcase them to a whole new audience, broader in scope and beyond their previous ventures. A perfect pairing with Jeff Cloud and VBM, The Prids are poised to conquer the indie world, one dreamy track after the next.

thepaintedman rates this: ??????????

Post-Data is the debut from the Brooklyn 3-piece that has much more experience in their sound than they have as a band. With a comfort level and tightness as a band that takes many bands years and years to develop, the band has hit their stride with only one official release. Impressive to say the least.

The album is another strong album beginning to end, with more originality than the typical NYC copycat band. Combining an obvious influence from the shoegaze scene of the 80’s with the classic New York sound of Interpol, the band manages to steer clear of the trap that the other bands coming out of this Hipster Mecca fall into. Bits and pieces of grunge, new wave, and electro find their way into the band’s sound on Post-Data creating the feel - thepaintedman.com

It's awfully difficult for a rock band to stand out in New York these days, which is what makes Me You Us Them's 3-song EP-Blue that much more impressive. This duo seems to have been equally influenced by My Bloody Valentine and the post-punk movement. Look for this EP in an eco-friendly brown paper bag. All three tracks recommended.

WLUR - WLUR 91.5 Lexington, VA

It's awfully difficult for a rock band to stand out in New York these days, which is what makes Me You Us Them's 3-song EP-Blue that much more impressive. This duo seems to have been equally influenced by My Bloody Valentine and the post-punk movement. Look for this EP in an eco-friendly brown paper bag. All three tracks recommended.

WLUR - WLUR 91.5 Lexington, VA