Music

LISTEN: Something Like Blood

Meridene’s second LP is the best stuff they’ve done

Andy Plank, photos by Drew Kaiser |

 
WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAB APPLES. Meridene is Britta Hetzel (bass), Paul Brandt (keys), Dave Power (drums), and Trevor Ives (vocals, guitar).

With only an echoing note from a distant guitar behind him, Trevor Ives delivers the last line of Something Like Blood, Meridene’s new full-length album. “As you reach for the handle, you can hear someone say, ‘Nothing is certain in this world today.’” A great swell of noise follows, and in a last hurrah of chords, keyboards, crashing cymbals, and blaring trumpets, a collection of songs embodied by messages of fear and doubt during economic and cultural instability comes to a screaming collapse.

“The album’s loose theme is the crumbling economy that we are forced to live in today,” says Ives. “It’s told from many different points of view, be it from someone losing their job or their home, to a disintegrating marriage and loss of faith.”

Of course, a central theme and well-written lyrics without good music is better off a book of poems, but the nine songs that make up Something are undeniably Meridene’s best. It’s a dynamic display from a rock band that has perfected a sensibility for multiple brands of pop music.

Charging at full speed and strength, Gone, Baby Gone is an all-out pop-rock anthem in the vein of the Shout Out Louds or Phoenix about how we find the fight in ourselves to hold onto the things we’re proud of. Parade of Fools is a darkly tinged Cursive-esque song about a failed marriage held together by ignorance and fear of the unknown. These songs are the familiar type of exciting, catchy toe-tappers that got Meridene on college radio stations across the country after their last release, You’re Not Pretty, You’re Worse. We’ve come to expect these, but Something Like Blood offers more.


    Other songs hold back in terms of tempo and steadily drive their melodies through impressively written song structures. The album’s title track is a slow and soft moving ballad laid out over Dave Power’s purely jazz-inspired drum roll. Forgoing typical structure, the song melts itself into an instrumental ending highlighted by sun-splashed guitars reminiscent of Halloween, Alaska. Written Like Mad Sonnets is guided by a reverb-soaked guitar and a bright pattern of Paul Brandt’s echoing keyboard chords. Some of the album’s most memorable vocal melodies soar above this maze of a song, and after contemplating religious fears and personal doubt, Ives makes his revelation. “The blood we shed is pointless,” he says. “We got it all wrong.”

At least some of the success of these songs can be credited to the recording process. Ives, Brandt, and Power spent the better part of four days at April Base Studio, home and professional studio of Justin Vernon, recording parts with Brian Moen (Laarks, Peter Wolf Crier) and Zach Hanson (Laarks, The Gentle Guest). “The four days at April Base were amazing,” says Ives. “We woke up and had breakfast at the Maple Manor and then worked for 12 hours straight.” After a lengthy mixing process, the tracks were then mastered by former Pedro the Lion member TW Walsh, who recently finished mastering two releases by Sufjan Stevens, among others.

Meridene’s newfound ability to combine various styles of well-crafted songwriting, a central theme, and professional recording led to a truly remarkable album. “I guess the one thing I was surprised about,” says Ives, “was how proud I am of the record. I really do wear it like a badge of honor.” That pride won’t seem in vain to listeners, as the final product from the hard work and expertise is truly merit in itself.

    Meridene CD Release + Total Babe + The Heart Pills • Sept. 25 • The Oxford Theater, 1814 N Oxford Ave., Eau Claire • 7pm • $5 • all ages • www.meridene.net