Philly-based alternative outfit, East Hundred, is gaining some notoriety in its home city. Two years of touring and writing was their prerequisite to this debut full length album. I sat with a shiny physical copy of Passenger for the better part of the last week. A compact disc… believe it. Passenger kicked off with the song “Slow Burning Crimes.” Immediately I was excited by the 90’s alt/pop feel. The guitars reminded me of The Cranberries.
Looking back, one thing has become clear to me about the ‘00s. There was a repercussion to the beginning of illegal downloading, record labels were putting out awful music. MTV gave birth to a new pop punk flavor of the week every Monday and Staind, Puddle of Mud, Godsmack and the post grunge posse were all taking that everlasting note from Cobain’s book – beef up the guitars enough and no one will recognize the pop hooks being fed to them.
So why is that worth mentioning? Am I saying that East Hundred is a pop punk fad, or a post grunge mishap? No. But there are more than a few hints that this band is taking notes from the aforementioned bands. Listen to the song “Along The Way”. Here singer Guceri sits in such a minor realm with her vocals that I can’t help but feel like I’m listening to hit maker Evanescence’s debut.
Second track off the album, ‘”Plus Minus,” reminds me of Paramore or emo rockers Thursday. This time the strange alt aesthetic doesn’t come from Guceri’s vocal melodies, but in her backup. The breakdown at 2:30 feels like something that comes right out of the Warped Tour textbook. Especially in the drums; I would throw down a months rent betting I could take the drum track from this song and fit it perfectly into thirty other songs.
SEast Hundred labels themselves as an indie band. And though I have argued that they remind me of the last decade of alternative, to argue that East Hundred is not an indie band would require me to define the label of indie, a pretentious crime I would not begin to commit.
Lightly crunched and delayed guitars, reverb soaked vocals, synth keyboards, and piano accompaniment. When the band began to assemble a great song idea, there was always a part that jumped into my ears screaming that I was listening to something less inspired than I had hoped for.
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Photo courtesy of Tirzah Fowler
