Facing New York
Get Hot
Rating: 2.5
Label: Five One Inc.
The old adage goes: write what you know, and Facing New York is tangible proof of why this is so important. After spinning for hours on my stereo, I still can’t tell what Get Hot wants to do. The Bay-area trio sound like they just jumped from a plane; their parachutes are caught in a tangle of forest branches and they don’t know which tree they want to climb down.
At the forefront is Eric Frederic’s voice, a prominent element that conjures the band’s emo side. This forms a disorienting juxtaposition when paired with Brandon Canchola and Omar Cuellar’s tight rhythm section recalling ’70s progressive funk-rock. When they sporadically add in random splotches of keyboard, it sounds like Fall Out Boy doing impressions of Steely Dan and Styx. As a result, the band comes off desperate to impress a more sophisticated audience by displaying its fluency with offbeats and non-traditional song structures, but when Frederic spends his time ridiculing bike cops and gloating about his sex life, it’s hard to take them seriously: “I’m screwing college freshmen and desperate housewives/ Could it be I’m stuck dead center between my teens and my thirties?/ Envisioning how my children would look if I had ‘em with the woman in the checkout line in front of me.”
Lyrics aside, the music is hit or miss. Each song is structured on a series of organized chordal and bass-line tangents. Melodies skip and change abruptly, but there are many excellent moments throughout the record. “Hardwood Floors” is very reminiscent of Steely Dan’s catchier, groovier compositions, while “Give Love” recalls the more melodic side of indie punk.
Unfortunately, the rest of the album doesn’t flow as evenly. Getting to the juicy parts requires waiting out the filler that wanders aimlessly through the majority of the album. For example, “Man Up” and the opener “Cops on Bikes” sport rewarding melodies, but only if you can sift through the first minute or so of the directionless vocals and drum noodling. “Me N My Friendz” has the opposite problem. It begins as a very engaging guitar-driven romp, but the verses retreat into bland keyboard patterns that clash with Frederic’s ill-structured rant.
Facing New York have certainly carved their own sound, but because of its hints of immaturity, it is a sound that will inevitably appeal more to Gen-Xers than progressive fans. With a patient ear, one can enjoy the many moments to be had on Get Hot, as long as you aren’t stuck trying to determine which tree the band is climbing down.
by Jory Spadea
