Spring Break
WKDU DJs analyze best recordings of the year
WKDU
Issue date: 12/5/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
The Max Levine Ensemble
"OK Smartypants"
It was June, and I was at a pop punk fest in Maryland. I just finished watching some band (I think it was For Science) play and some dude came in and started yelling that a band was going to play in the third room in about a minute.
I went over and they started jumping around playing really short and fun songs out of one of the worst sound setups I've ever heard. After a few songs, they started playing a Cleveland Bound Death Sentence cover and I got really stoked - I jumped on some kid and I think I knocked a few people over. It was awesome, and I was hooked on this band.
I learned they were called The Max Levine Ensemble and they used to be a pop punk ska band that wasn't so great. But they were working on their new full-length "OK Smartypants" for about four-and-a-half years, and it definitely shows.
It's a complete step up from a band that kind of sounded like an inside joke between some friends. They lost most of their ska edge on this record and replaced it with standard pop-punk sounds but it works great. It's full of songs about girls and how sometimes stuff isn't so great, but with a breath of fresh air.
--Alejandro Valdes, Punk Director
VELNIAS
"Sovereign Nocturnal"
November is a terrible time to visit Minnesota, unless you happen to be there for a pagan/black metal festival (in which case the mead and ale will keep you plenty warm!). Such was my purpose for braving St. Paul's frigid, inhospitable climes a few weekends ago - hitting up the third-annual Heathen Crusade metal fest and doing my best to stave off frostbite. I picked up Velnias' debut LP, "Sovereign Nocturnal," minutes after their mindblowing performance on the fest's second day, and was pleased to discover that the ritualistic, almost trance-like atmosphere they cultivated on stage carried through into their recordings.
The somber blue lights and scraps of bone and antler that littered the candlelit stage served as a fitting backdrop to Velnias' melancholy, deeply-affecting blend of black, folk, and doom, underlain as it was with the kind of suffocating, hypnotic groove that Deathspell Omega would sacrifice themselves for.
"OK Smartypants"
It was June, and I was at a pop punk fest in Maryland. I just finished watching some band (I think it was For Science) play and some dude came in and started yelling that a band was going to play in the third room in about a minute.
I went over and they started jumping around playing really short and fun songs out of one of the worst sound setups I've ever heard. After a few songs, they started playing a Cleveland Bound Death Sentence cover and I got really stoked - I jumped on some kid and I think I knocked a few people over. It was awesome, and I was hooked on this band.
I learned they were called The Max Levine Ensemble and they used to be a pop punk ska band that wasn't so great. But they were working on their new full-length "OK Smartypants" for about four-and-a-half years, and it definitely shows.
It's a complete step up from a band that kind of sounded like an inside joke between some friends. They lost most of their ska edge on this record and replaced it with standard pop-punk sounds but it works great. It's full of songs about girls and how sometimes stuff isn't so great, but with a breath of fresh air.
--Alejandro Valdes, Punk Director
VELNIAS
"Sovereign Nocturnal"
November is a terrible time to visit Minnesota, unless you happen to be there for a pagan/black metal festival (in which case the mead and ale will keep you plenty warm!). Such was my purpose for braving St. Paul's frigid, inhospitable climes a few weekends ago - hitting up the third-annual Heathen Crusade metal fest and doing my best to stave off frostbite. I picked up Velnias' debut LP, "Sovereign Nocturnal," minutes after their mindblowing performance on the fest's second day, and was pleased to discover that the ritualistic, almost trance-like atmosphere they cultivated on stage carried through into their recordings.
The somber blue lights and scraps of bone and antler that littered the candlelit stage served as a fitting backdrop to Velnias' melancholy, deeply-affecting blend of black, folk, and doom, underlain as it was with the kind of suffocating, hypnotic groove that Deathspell Omega would sacrifice themselves for.
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