Family Ties/Labors of Love by Les Doux/Citycop (2013)

Kind of Like: Old Gray, Barrow, I really don't know
Genres: Hardcore, Post-hardcore, Screamo, Folk
Buy: Sea of Tranquility, Flannel Gurl Records
Preview: 


Evan from Les Doux is a pretty stand up guy, he wrote me a really nice sincere e-mail and that really goes a long way for me.  I know both of these bands from previous reviews, so I'm sure I would've gotten around to this eventually, but anyways...

If you're looking for something genuinely fresh (I tend to use this term on whim, but these bands really exhibit this to a more extreme degree), then this is the split for you.  If you are tired of what is becoming somewhat generic screamo, then by all means you need to do yourself a favor and listen to this twangy take and see how it makes you feel.  In all honesty, I listened to this maybe a month or so ago and it didn't really move me right off the bat, but I always try to give albums a second go which I did recently. It's visceral, good stuff and I am only listening to it more and more.

Now I need to get some errands done before my day saturated in hockey begins.  Oh, how I've missed it...

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Dialects by Les Doux (2011)

Kind of Like: La Dispute, Murder by Death
Genres: Screamo, Post-hardcore, Folk
Preview:
I reviewed these guys before with their self-titled EP.  They are a promising take on screamo with an addition of heavy southern/folk riffs.  I can appreciate anybody that tries to take on combining two genres.  The problem for me with this album was how long it took for me to come around to it.  The first song was redundant and didn't really hook me.  This is a concept EP.  The four songs on the EP (Interrogative, Declarative, Exclamatory, Imperative) were each written with that particular sentence structure and each is from a different perspective of a person involved in the story of a son leaving his home.  That's good and all, but it doesn't matter how cool a concept is if it doesn't grab me from the get go, especially an EP.

Now for the good news, the second half of this EP is way better than the first half, in my opinion.  It's unfortunate that this EP really hits its stride during the last song.  There is even a really cool folk/blues part that fits in perfectly at about the 2:35 mark of the last song, it's something you don't normally hear in this kind of music and it reminds me of Murder By Death; a really cool folksy sounding band from Indiana.

One other oddity, for some reason Declarative is significantly quieter than the other songs.  Just jump between Declarative and Imperative and you probably will notice it.  Maybe they were recorded or mixed at different times or something.  Maybe that's why Declarative just doesn't have the same "umph" for me.

I hate being a critic sometimes.

Listen Here:

Les Doux EP by Les Doux (2010)

Kind of Like: Caravels, We Were Skeletons, La Dispute
Genres: Screamo, Post-Hardcore, Rock
Preview: Bandcamp

Kind of a different take on the screamo genre.  They focus a lot more on rockin' guitar riffs, but they still have that screamo/post-hardcore foundation, not to mention the La Dispute-esque spoken-word-over-the music sections.  This album came out last year, and I'm curious if these guys have any plans in the near future.  Oh, what do you think of the new background?  Honestly I wanted to find a picture of puke close up and just use that, but surprisingly I couldn't find a picture I was satisfied with.  So, I found a picture of a guy puking on his friend and threw some filters on it.  Lori says it looks too angry and she liked the old one.  We'll see how long until I change it again.

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