“Don’t Look For Any Meaning”
A full-length album isn’t expected from Brooklyn’s The Living Kills until next year, but in the meantime they’ve released Odd Fellows Hall, a five-song compilation of 70s-rock organ, synth and percussion that manages to also maintain a modern-day rock sound.
Their 2011 release Faceless Angels is much more cohesive and slower than Odd Fellows Hall. While playing anything from Angels live might have fans with lighters (or smartphones with virtual lighter flame apps installed) in the air, Odd Fellows Hall might have a few obnoxious young ones running around like banshees in a circle, and will at the very least get you dancing in your place, since it often comes complete with a light show performance.
Opener “Anywhere,” for example, is considerably more uptempo than anything heard on Angels. The keys/organ (Jennifer Bassett) stand out more everywhere on Odd Fellows Hall and manage to keep pace with Brian Del Guercio’s rapid drumming and the guitar contributions of Merrill Sherman (frontman) and Heron Furtwangler.
That isn’t to say everything is positive and upbeat and happy. “And You Scream” addresses “nightmares” and “visions” and the world being a stage and its inhabitants being all the actors: “Just ‘cause you conceal, don’t mean you’re not real.”
On “The Tragic World of the Living Kills” we hear Bassett’s soft and feminine voice in a sort of duet with Sherman. Self-labeled as “creepy,” nothing comes off as too creepy-sounding until this final song, when all instrumentals become simpler and repeat the same easy, creepy riffs over and over.
Odd Fellows Hall is hopefully a taste of what we will hear from The Living Kills in 2015. As long as they keep up the upbeat dancing creep vibe, everything should be great.
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