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Halfwayhome:
A Brand New Subdivision
I think its time we, dear readers, have a little talk about what defines indie. At one time, anything released on an independent record label could accurately be described as indie, but eventually the word came less to represent a bands position in the industry and more to sum up the way that bands music sounded. Since at least the first Pavement album, indie has morphed into a musical genre (albeit a rather open and varied one), and that means being on an indie label no longer bestows automatic indie credentials. I bring this up because its all too often I come across bands like Halfwayhome bands that would like to believe they are playing indie rock, usually for two reasons: one, a feeling that they belong somewhere outside the mainstream, and two, the fact that they have only an independent label backing them up. But bands like Halfwayhome fit quite snugly with all the popular groups on modern rock radio and MTV2. Sure, we might put the label alternative on this music, but only in the post-Cobain-suicide sense of that word: i.e., in a world where alternative is a genre of music no less mainstream than princess-made pop and Top 40 hip-hop. Halfwayhome is a contemporary emo band, plain and simple. Theyve shared stages with Story of the Year, Thursday and Taking Back Sunday and, as far as Im concerned, are basically indistinguishable from these and other late 90s/early 00s emo bands. The fact that they hail from Orange County, CA, is hardly necessary for them to reveal; they epitomize perfectly the Southlands persistently predictable sound. Calling their album A Brand New Subdivision was seemingly meant as a swipe at the blandness of the region they call home; ironically, their music is a perfect reflection of this depressing monotony. The one thing Ill never understand about PR companies that try to promote emo bands is why they always describe the music as hook-laden. Emo is the least catchy music in the world. Todays emo bands have an almost non-existent sense of melody, unable to provide listeners with even a chorus worth holding onto. To add insult to injury, they rarely manage to innovate when it comes to rhythm or compositional structure, either. Every song is the same old story: a loud verse consisting of barre-chorded guitars, a quasi-pop chorus, a quiet bridge, and a return to the loud verse, all of which are overlain with empty, whining male vocals trying to pass themselves off as emotive. While Halfwayhome are competent enough, they do nothing to move this genre forward something Im beginning to doubt any band can accomplish. And so that returns me to the original point of this review. The wide-ranging genre of indie is unified by only one thing: an attempt to bring something new to the table, to remind listeners that music is an art form as much as painting or dance. Halfwayhome have failed miserably at that, and anybody pushing them as indie rock clearly needs to sit through a refresher course in music history.
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