If you could pick a member out of Nirvana to emulate with your band, who would you pick? This is a bit of a trick question, because there really only are two choices – Kurt or Dave. Krist, for all his “great dude” qualities and the contributions he made to the band’s sound, isn’t exactly – how to put it – a poster boy for a young rock band with all kinds of ideas of how they will rock our world and, in the process, go to town on that local scene girl with the little tattoo on her left shoulderblade.
Dinosaur Pile-Up have, it seems, plumped for option number two – Mr Dave “the nicest man in rock” Grohl and his bunch of merry, meaty rockers the Foo Fighters. After doing the rounds of the then-fertile Leeds alt-rock scene since around 2007 and dropping a deliciously sloppy EP, they now sweep the drone-gaze you’ve been listening to for the last months from your desk (or, more likely, hard drive) and hit you up with some fuckin’ balls.
That’s the theory anyway. Because while there certainly is a lot of snare-pounding and raspy growling going on, Growing Pains leaves you more deflated than energised or even “pumped”. Opener ‘Birds & Planes’ and the subsequent ‘Barcelona’ with their drive and exuberance make a pretty good double whammy and showcase the impressive production – everything sounds fatter than the daily diet of the half-ton son (interestingly, the band reportedly turned down producer Gil Norton) for this record), while Matt Bigland’s vocals still have ample space to dominate proceedings.
On the subjects of Bigland’s vocals: it’s very interesting just how much he sounds like Dave Grohl on the (incredible) The Colour and The Shape. The ease with which he switches from singing to shouting, the way the harmonies are fitted around the main melody – the only (and maybe most important) thing missing is Grohl’s poignancy.
The stop-start-grunge of ‘My Rock ‘n’ Roll’ is still as fun as it was when it first came out two years ago, ‘Barcelona’ has a good, punchy chorus, but man, most of the other songs are just so dull. ‘Maybe It’s You’ is exactly the kind of bland radio rock that the Foo Fighters have specialised in after 2003, and why there is a 10-minute-gap between the last song and an acoustic ‘hidden track’ (which isn’t even a proper song, just a couple of bars and a lyric about some ‘baby’ or other) will probably remain a mystery forever.
Maybe Dinosaur Pile-Up should have drawn inspiration from this lot instead?
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If you’re going to be grunge why be a pastiche of grunge? I’d prefer it if ‘grunge’ bands took their influences and ran with them instead of emulating what’s come before. Hoping bands like Funeral Party get more exposure in 2011 and show what can be done with grunge influences whilst still managing to sound original. Have been introduced to a few unsigned bands recently, Hold The Sun to name but one, which give me faith that the legacy of grunge can exist in the modern world without sounding dated.