31Knots
The Days & Nights Of Everything Anywhere

[Polyvinyl; 2007]

Styles: Vaudevillian punk cabaret
Others: Dresden Dolls, Muse, Modest Mouse

Wow... I’m at something of a loss. Who knew Portland-based outfit 31Knots would choose their fourth full-length to be their breakout? While they have been working on their self-described “post-apocalyptic Vaudevillian punk” since the late ’90s, The Days & Nights Of Everything Anywhere sees that macabre spectacle perfected in album form. The experienced pacing of musical variety — taking cues from American jazz, Muse-like punk-rock, horn-led ska, synth-heavy Anticon downtempo, and even marching bands — works well to underscore Joe Haege’s socio-politically aware lyricism, often recorded through a Julian Casablancas (The Strokes) broken mic, this creating a compelling narrative that doesn’t fall prey to the fits of vanity that tease the undertaking of any project of this magnitude. Simply, Days & Nights distils a good chunk of the American musical canon into a unique, singular showcase of accessible yet intelligent fringe rock that doesn’t get old fast. Muse and The Dresden Dolls have recently found success doing something fairly similar. Toss in a couple more bands, and you’ve got yourself a full-blown movement. Of course, toss in a few pale imitators and you’ve got a trend, but music this diversely challenging is almost impossible to fake, and nothing this vindictively political will ever be truly trendy (how many bands like System Of A Down are on the charts aside from them?). It’s prolly better that way anyway. Let’s keep this between us and our better friends.

1. Beauty 2. Sanctify 3. Savage Boutique 4. Man Become Me 5. The Salted Tongue 6. Hit List Shakes (The Inconvenience Of You) 7. Everything In Letters 8. The Days & Nights Of Lust & Presumption 9. Imitation Flesh 10. Pulse Of A Decimal 11. Walk With Caution