Motorist - Days Of Young

Label: Self Released
Year: 2013

Setting the Way-Back Machine circa 1993 or so, and landing it on one of the sketchier city blocks of Trade Street in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, ground zero for the local underground music scene (shout out to the New Start posse!), you would have found a couple musicians who were loosing the moors tethering them to a strictly hardcore aesthetic, and experimenting with melody, dynamics, and mood. They made the initial forays into the nascent "post hardcore" landscape, and formed a band called Shatterhed, who put out two phenomenal 7"s of big, rocking, riffy songs that you never heard (unless you're in the Contacts section of my telephone).
Setting the Way-Back Machine circa 1995 or so, and landing it on that same pock-mocked strip of downtown Winston-Salem (which is easy to miss, mind you), and you will witness another group of musicians giving their own spin on hardcore and later post-post-hardcore with a band called Codeseven who put out a few albums that you might have actually heard as they garnered a good deal of praise and platitudes from the general public (oddly enough, I did not hear these albums until this year...I was, how do you say, "out of the loop").
Now, set the Way-Back Machine for the heady summer of 2012 (if you can remember that far back), and, surprisingly, park that thing on the renovated and family friendly Trade Street (my, how times have changed), and you will find a new band forming that takes their cues from the music that informed both Shatterhed (Jawbox, Iceburn [that's right...Iceburn], Seaweed, Fugazi, Quicksand, Nomeansno), and the latter era of Codeseven (Cave In [middle period], Texas Is The Reason, Hum, some shoegaze, some space rock, some Radiohead even), lots of reference points firmly rooted in the 1990s. And when you add all that up, you get a wholly satisfying jolt of big hooks, burly riffs, towering melodies, and shimmering dynamics.
Imagine a new band like Aeges (also firmly rooted in mid-90s post hardcore), and combine that with an older band like Shiner, and there you are. It has the touchstones of the music you've loved for years, and adds a new sheen and a kick in the ass. I've been listening to this album a few times a week since I got a copy, and I promise you, it gets stronger and stronger as you revisit it. I can't recommend it any higher.

DL