BAND OF THE WEEK: Great Falls
Frighteningly intense noise rock that knock your entire sock drawer off.
I don’t know, man. Maybe it’s just me, maybe it’s wishful thinking. I’m too much into noise rock, too much into the old Am Rep scene and any kind of angular, cruel, sardonic kind of music that harks back to that, so maybe when something really cool like that appears, it just messes with my head a little too much and makes me see things that aren’t there. But I do get the feeling that we’re living through a particularly fertile period for this type of stuff, don’t you? I mean, the awesomeness of KEN mode alone, with two albums in less than a year, would already constitute “a good period”, but with people like Deep Cross, JAAW, Punching Swans, Årabrot, Cherubs (no new album yet, but they’re reissuing ‘Icing’ and going on tour!), Hey Colossus, Gauze Trail, Night Goat and even Chat Pile to a certain extent, just to mention a few off the top of my head, being incredibly active and pushing at the various broad boundaries of the genre, it feels like a good time to be into “noise rock”, whatever that means to you.
So yeah, you guessed it, Great Falls aren’t a neoclassical ska band with a sitar and a string orchestra, they’re a fucking awesome, unbearably heavy noise rock power trio - typically the best format for this sort of music -, and if you haven’t ran into them throughout their respectable career so far, now is the right time. Though they’ve been around for over a decade, with a shitload of releases to their name already, with vocalist/guitarist Demian Johnston and bassist Shane Mehling going even further back, having played in Playing Enemy and Hemingway, it’s still impossible to not be taken aback by the sheer intensity and conviction of the songs on their new album, ‘Objects Without Pain‘, set to be released on September 15th via their illustrious new home, Neurot Recordings. If you’re a fan, you already know you can expect some pretty dark, psychologically devastating - their lyrics/concept are always expertly crafted and very, very affecting - material from these people, but holy shit, no one can prepare you for this:
And that’s just the second song on the album, which in my opinion is totally indissociable from the creeping, raw pain of the nine-minute opener ‘Dragged Home Alive’. ‘Trap Feeding’ is full on and fast and a ripping tune because it had to be - another minute of slow-burning, rub-it-in-your-face misery and this album might have had to carry a “keep razors away” warning sticker with it. So yeah, this one song that is public for now is indeed the sound of a band that has literally broken limbs while playing their legendary obliterating live shows, but the whole album is such a stomach-churning emotional ride that no one song will ever do it justice. Trust me, it’ll be worth the wait until the release date. One final note for the last unmentioned band member, Nickolis Parks (Gaytheist, Bastard Feast), on his first full-length release with Great Falls - like an unhinged octopus on aderall, he hits hard and precisely, but with just a tiny hint of uncontrol that elevates each song to the next level of sonic violence, both on an obvious and on an understated level.
Of course, the nastiest music is usually made by the nicest people, so check out the great chat I had with bassist Shane Mehling (also a fellow Decibel scribe!) right after the jump.
“We have a book of like 45 new riffs and we assume at least some of those are good enough for something new.”
— Shane Mehling
Let’s start with the new stuff – how cool is it for you guys to be on Neurot, and how
was it recording an album with Nick on drums for the first time (though he was already on the ‘Funny What Survives’ EP, if I’m not mistaken?)? Can you identify any musical changes that might have occurred based on any of those factors?
Shane Mehling: We recorded the songs from the EP at the same time as the full-length, and those songs were written pretty late in the process, so it was all one big Nick experience. And we can’t say enough good stuff about him. He really gets what we’re going for and plays in a way we always wanted. He pushes the songs forward and it’s totally changed the dynamic, both in songwriting and live performance.. It does feel like a new band in many ways and this is the closest we’ve been to sounding ideally how we’ve always wanted.
As far as Neurot, it’s just really fucking cool. People we’ve idolized for so long putting out our record is very validating, and of any records we’ve done we’re very happy it’s this one. Going back to the reasons above, for the people who may just check out something because it’s on Neurot we hope/feel this is a pretty good first impression.
Lyrically, and to a certain extent in terms of performance too (dude, Demian’s vocals on some of these songs, holy shit), this feels even more anguished and desperate than your usual fare. Is that due to the subject matter of the album in some part, would you like to talk a little bit about that?
Shane: Demian has always been great at writing anguished lyrics, though I do think this time he was even more open and honest; a lot of straightforward discussion about things he’s going through. But I think he was most able to deliver because of preparation. Lyrics and patterns almost always come at the 25th hour for us and this time we made a concerted effort to get almost all of it sewn up earlier so Demian could feel comfortable with the patterns and words and he could focus on his performance.
It seems there’s a really good climate right now for this kind of thing, I’ve been seeing a lot of noise rock(ish) bands finally getting some due recognition in the past few months, do you feel that, coupled with the Neurot partnership, you can reach quite a few people who might not have been familiar with you before? Is that something you even think about?
Shane: We’re thinking about it more with this record than past ones, but nothing too grandiose. We’re not really looking beyond “Wouldn’t it be cool if we sold all these records in a reasonable amount of time?” which unfortunately is more ambitious than we’ve been in the past. Years ago we were dragged kicking and screaming into even posting about our shows, so now that I’m putting up Instagram video clips and pre-order calls to action, it’s a very different animal. It can feel uncomfortable, but between the record and the label, it deserves some self-promotion.
Do you have any particular favourite songs on the album, anything that might mean a little more to you than the others for any reason?
Shane: I think track 5, ‘Spill Into The Aisle’, means a lot to us only because it was the first song we wrote after the last record and it just sucked for years. We wrote it and broke it apart a bunch of times. We played two different versions live, and both of them went over terribly. We’d cut out pieces and they would end up in other songs and we wondered why we kept even trying to make it work. Then finally, before recording, we took one more shot and somehow it all came together. Of course, it in no way resembles the original and I’m not even sure why we still think of it as the same song. Still, we chalk it up as a win.
I have unfortunately never seen you guys live, but all videos and accounts point to a certain degree of unhinged savagery. Is it a cathartic sort of thing for you guys when you play live? And do you think these new songs will incorporate well in that setting?
Shane: I don’t really know how to accurately describe what’s behind the live performances; cathartic is not a bad description, but it’s not as though live shows are what keep us from driving a car into a drugstore. I think it’s just the feeling that when you get up there you want to accurately reflect the music, which is often pretty noisy and chaotic and there is also this weird feeling of accomplishment when the show is over and you’re completely exhausted and sore. I think focusing more on just the music like we do during practice would feel really disingenuous; also I have pretty bad anxiety, so if I just stood there with my bass I’d probably forget how to play the songs.
We’re one of those bands who don’t play old stuff, so we’ve only been playing songs off this record and the EP for a while now. And so far the reception has been really good. It’s hard to judge completely, because Nick is such a value add live, but it seems like people are enjoying how the songs come off live. I’d be heartbroken if they didn’t.
What are your plans right now? Got anything lined up that we should know? For instance, it’s been a little while since the last split release, right?
Shane: We actually do have another secret split coming out soon, but we’re trying to figure out when we can release it so it doesn’t get overshadowed by the full-length. And we’re recording a couple new songs next month for small stuff. We’re touring the east coast in October and then we’ll just get back to writing. We have a book of like 45 new riffs and we assume at least some of those are good enough for something new.
You can find Great Falls on Bandcamp, Instagram, Facebook and Spotify.
’Objects Without Pain’ is out through Neurot Recordings on September 15h. You can pre-order it here.
No pressure (that bursts pipes), but, album of the year contender?