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Discography
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I’ve been following this band since their inception more than three years ago, but since they rarely tour and never respond to invitations for chili night at my house…
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Brooklyn’s Team Genius have been very busy since our coverage of last year’s CMJ Music Marathon . The band is gearing to release three EPs on Paper Garden Records as well as a full-length LP that drops Nov. 6. Pop Songs, Loud Songs, Whiskey Songs, New York Songs (in that order) chronicles Team Genius’s evolution as both a team and as individuals creating music in arguably the most inspiring—and often emotionally devastating—city in the country. It’s an ambitious feat, but succeeds, largely due to the band’s ease at preserving their trademark infectious hooks and refusal to succumb to emoting for emoting’s sake.
The journey starts with Pop Songs, which we’ll refer to as the “adolescent” stage. Just like young, stupid love, Pop Songs feels nice, if not a bit ephemeral. Drew Hermiller sings about an “eyes closed” kind of amour on “Love and Love Songs,” which anyone over the age of 25 is likely to associate with notebooks filled with terrifying attempts at poetry. Pop Songs is out to have a good time, heart emphatically on display and spirits high (as evidenced by the party anthem “Ronald Reagan’s Cousin”), consequences be damned.
Wooo! You’re in college! Keg stand! Loud Songs starts where Pop Songs ended and amplifies the shit out of it. Reality hasn’t yet made an appearance, last night’s pizza hasn’t yet congealed, it’s not yet physically impossible to party for 24-hours straight and still show up for an 8am class. These are the sweet years. Loud Songs throws your senses into overdrive because that’s generally what happens when you crank up the volume. Consequences be damned. Loud Songs also includes a cover of Plastic Bertrand’s 70s hit “Ça Plane Pour Moi,” which basically translates as “things are going great for me,” an apt theme for a record hell bent on destruction of both scruples and of eardrums.
Remember when you graduated from your liberal arts college with a degree in American Studies and immediately became unemployable? Whiskey Songs opens with the soul-crushing “Seven Years,” a critical semi-rant about getting older and not necessarily wiser: “Seven years in this city, all I learned was how to sound witty / And now I’m tired and I’m old / I’m a cynic, or so I’ve been told.” These are the heavy-drinking years. Whiskey Songs is still a pop album, make no mistake. It’s certainly more unsympathetic than the other EPs; however, as I mentioned earlier, the band has this great flair for never, ever lapsing into paralyzing self-loathing (even when they tackle those uncomfortably familiar topics like when friends start to find you annoying). Also, the album ends on a somewhat optimistic note with “I Wouldn’t Change a Thing,” a simple repetition of that hard-earned, judicious mantra…
…Which brings us to the present: New York Songs. Expect a full review closer to the November release date, but here’s a teaser from the band’s website:
Team Genius' three EPs, Pop Songs, Loud Songs, and Whiskey Songs will be available October 2nd. The full length, New York Songs, will be available November 6th, 2012, from Paper Garden Records. For more information on the band, visit their Facebook page. You can stream all four EPs on Bandcamp .
The journey starts with Pop Songs, which we’ll refer to as the “adolescent” stage. Just like young, stupid love, Pop Songs feels nice, if not a bit ephemeral. Drew Hermiller sings about an “eyes closed” kind of amour on “Love and Love Songs,” which anyone over the age of 25 is likely to associate with notebooks filled with terrifying attempts at poetry. Pop Songs is out to have a good time, heart emphatically on display and spirits high (as evidenced by the party anthem “Ronald Reagan’s Cousin”), consequences be damned.
Wooo! You’re in college! Keg stand! Loud Songs starts where Pop Songs ended and amplifies the shit out of it. Reality hasn’t yet made an appearance, last night’s pizza hasn’t yet congealed, it’s not yet physically impossible to party for 24-hours straight and still show up for an 8am class. These are the sweet years. Loud Songs throws your senses into overdrive because that’s generally what happens when you crank up the volume. Consequences be damned. Loud Songs also includes a cover of Plastic Bertrand’s 70s hit “Ça Plane Pour Moi,” which basically translates as “things are going great for me,” an apt theme for a record hell bent on destruction of both scruples and of eardrums.
Remember when you graduated from your liberal arts college with a degree in American Studies and immediately became unemployable? Whiskey Songs opens with the soul-crushing “Seven Years,” a critical semi-rant about getting older and not necessarily wiser: “Seven years in this city, all I learned was how to sound witty / And now I’m tired and I’m old / I’m a cynic, or so I’ve been told.” These are the heavy-drinking years. Whiskey Songs is still a pop album, make no mistake. It’s certainly more unsympathetic than the other EPs; however, as I mentioned earlier, the band has this great flair for never, ever lapsing into paralyzing self-loathing (even when they tackle those uncomfortably familiar topics like when friends start to find you annoying). Also, the album ends on a somewhat optimistic note with “I Wouldn’t Change a Thing,” a simple repetition of that hard-earned, judicious mantra…
…Which brings us to the present: New York Songs. Expect a full review closer to the November release date, but here’s a teaser from the band’s website:
The End Game: This is the story […] The search for something to connect you to everything. […] This about what it takes to get there. The euphoric wins, the colossal failures and all the plodding moments in between. [Team Genius] lived it, and then they made a full length album about it.
Team Genius' three EPs, Pop Songs, Loud Songs, and Whiskey Songs will be available October 2nd. The full length, New York Songs, will be available November 6th, 2012, from Paper Garden Records. For more information on the band, visit their Facebook page. You can stream all four EPs on Bandcamp .
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