to infinity

This week's "cliché that starts off a letter" is the old one about imitation being the highest form of flattery. Maybe it's great to try your hardest to be just like something that came before you, in a way proving your mastery of the craft. Maybe you just can't come up with something else.

Whether we want to or not, I'm sure we all have that person we emulate. If we're lucky we get to choose that person and it becomes a driving force in your life. Honestly, I'm sitting here trying to think about my youth and whom that person might have been for me. I didn't have a hero, a mentor, or even someone to look up to. Does that mean I'm my own person? I would like to think that, but I know that more of my father than I wish has unfortunately rubbed off on me.

But is it really that bad when one band emulates another? What if it's like that time I heard this random tune on the radio called "Sometimes" and swore it was Thom Yorke singing? Or that there were countless bands that heard Mumford and Sons for the first time and thought "yeah, banjo!" (like the Lumineers, for one). Or maybe you're into the deeper cuts: like maybe you know Kurt Cobain was a huge Pixies fan and that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" has a chorusnot unlike a certain track from Trompe Le Monde...

So once again I was surfing Bandcamp (like ya do), and I hear this track that sounds so familiar... I can't immediately place it, so I click through to the page for the Seattle based outfit Special Explosion. Their debut album To Infinity was released back in December, and I have to admit, I was quickly taken with it. Then I remembered who I thought they sounded like - another Seattle band you may have heard of once or twice called Death Cab For Cutie.

Now don't get me wrong: I really like (maybe liked) Death Cab. Transatlanticism is a modern classic that should be taught in schools - and maybe that's exactly what they did in Seattle. To Infinity is a nice little cross section of a number of Death Cab albums, but to me it really sounds a hybrid of The Photo Album and Narrow Stairs. Both good records in their own right, but they were slickly produced by a band that had been working for a number of years. Special Explosion only falls short in the tenure category.

This debut sounds slick and atmospheric, well rehearsed, and the songwriting is surprisingly good. I have to admit that one thing I like better about it than the Death Cab records is the male/female harmonies that Special Explosion have between Andy Costello and Lizzy Costello (not sure if they're related). There are flashes of guitar playing that could easily be Doug Martsch (Built To Spill) or Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse) combined with a drum forward sound. 

If, like me, you've tired of Death Cab over the years (let's face it, Kintsugi was a let down), grown weary for new Modest Mouse, and even know who Built To Spill is - you'll enjoy this emulation/record.

Recommended tracks: "Fire," "Skeleton," "Wet Dream," "Your Bed," "Gladiator"