Troubled Coast - I've Been Thinking About Leaving You 7"

I've posted a bit of Pure Noise related news today, so I thought I'd do a review as well. Troubled Coast are a Bay Area based post-hardcore band, and this is their latest release.

The opening salvo of this record Patient Hands, reminds me of simpler times. Times when bands and their music weren't so pretentious, when they sang from the heart and shot from the hip. I like the sense of melody sat underneath the shouted vocals of Troubled Coasts vocalist Mile. I like the energy and the fact that the clean singing doesn't sound like whiny emo. It reminds me of summer days and growing up without a care.

There's a lot more of this type of post-hardcore rising out of the US at the moment and it's really good for the scene I think, as it shows that bands are willing to stray from the flock and plough their own furrow. I'm Still A Loner, Dottie is a case in point. It's easy on the ear, but caustic at the same time and thanks to the good production, it sound like it recorded straight from a live show, which gives it an organic feel, which carries through the record as a whole.

The fizzing bass on La Jetee, gives way to a rhythm section that leads into a real knee-jerker of a song. I always find this type of screamed/sung hardcore to be really
uplifting, thanks to the melody that is woven into it. Trouble Coast don't do aggression for the sake of it, and when they do pull out a heavier part, it's full of emotion and
integrity. This is helped in part by the skilled instrumentation and arrangement of the songs.

The First Night of the New World is the last song of this four tracker, and it's an end that you just want to keep going on and on. This is the type of sound that blurs the lines between punk and hardcore, while managing to distance itself from genre convention.
It's an experience and it holds a strong message, which will mean different things to different listeners, but will invoke the same sense of awe in everyone who hears it. There's little more to be said, apart from wow!

Please make sure you visit Troubled Coast on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TroubledCoast, where you can here both Patient Hands and La Jetee, from this record. You can purchase the records from Pure Noise's Bandcamp page at http://purenoise.bandcamp.com/album/ive-been-thinking-about-leaving-you, where you can also stream all four tracks.