Let’s Really Open Up This Pit: Hear Turnstile’s ‘Move Thru Me’ EP

Lars Gotrich — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 11:00:23 +0000

It was way below freezing outside, a couple weeks before the holidays — the kind of cold that requires layers of long sleeves and flannel beneath your jacket. But in the basement of Songbyrd Music House in Washington, D.C., a swirling mass of hardcore kids leapt through the air, sweat flopping off heavy cotton since they had nowhere to stash their Bane and Judge hoodies. Heads narrowly avoided metal poles in a underworld dance of thrown elbows and knee-pumping swarm. Welcome to the gleeful insanity of a Turnstile show.

To love Turnstile — born in the suburbs of D.C. and Baltimore, with an assist from Columbus, Ohio — is to know and accept the big, dumb riffs of bands like Rage Against The Machine, Shelter and even 311. Last year’s Nonstop Feeling built off the band’s singles and EPs, splitting the difference between an aggressive hardcore-punk mentality and a mile-wide-grin melodic sensibility — and, more importantly, playing with its ’90s roots.

Before Turnstile begins work on its debut album for Roadrunner Records, the band’s releasing an EP on its own label, Pop Wig. This is the freewheeling and heavy hardcore the band’s honed to great effect in such a short time, with shout-along choruses and grooves that do more than just open up the pit.

“It felt really good making these songs,” the band tells NPR. “There’s so many inspiring individuals creating things or just being humans, and this singles EP was just a reflection on the importance of letting those things or people just inspire you and experiencing things fully; no physical, sexual, musical genre, world barriers.”

We’re premiering the B-side of the Move Thru Me EP, and for convenience’s sake, the A-side is right below it. The EP closes with a cover of Give‘s “F*** Me Blind,” featuring Petal’s Kiley Lotz on backing vocals; it’s a raucously heavy and fun track about breaking down societal notions on gender and sexual norms. The band adds, “Give from Washington, D.C., rocks ass.”

Move Thru Me comes out Sept. 16 on Pop Wig. Turnstile goes on tour in late October.

Viking’s Choice: Two Inch Astronaut, ‘Good Behavior’

Lars Gotrich — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 10:04:00 +0000

As it stands right now, the current D.C. hardcore/punk scene doesn’t dwell too much on its past. It’s there, it exists, but few seek out the sonic lineage left by Dischord Records in the ’80s and ’90s, which has proved crucial to the area’s revitalization. Two Inch Astronaut, however, has never been shy about picking up the torch. The D.C. post-hardcore band’s youthful enthusiasm has become more steadied over the years, and with its forthcoming third album Personal Life — produced by none other than J. Robbins — Two Inch Astronaut sounds as unpredictable and polished as ever.

“Good Behavior” leads the record with a snappy, twisted pop song. Sam Rosenberg’s knotty guitar work continues to evolve, as a Pixies-like sense of melody lurks the background, and he works nicely in tandem with new member Andy Chervenak (Grass Is Green), the bassist and co-vocalist who’s boosted the musicianship of the already talented trio. But Rosenberg has also finally come into his own as a singer. Here, he plays with the shapes of words as he circles around the melody and sells and yells the hell out of his dejection: “Good behavior cannot help me now.”

Personal Life comes out Feb. 5 on Exploding In Sound.

Viking’s Choice – Bandwidth

Let’s Really Open Up This Pit: Hear Turnstile’s ‘Move Thru Me’ EP

Viking’s Choice: Two Inch Astronaut, ‘Good Behavior’