Grunge – The Concordian

The ’90s post-grunge band releases the second act of their Opera Rock concept trilogy

The rock opera album ATUM (more like synth-wave opera) returns for Act II of III, after almost three months of anticipation since the first act. The story of said Opera Act is of an “epic interplanetary story set in the not-too-distant future,” according to Tinnitist.

The first track is “Avalanche,” and let me just say, it could not be a sweeter start to the second act. Billy Corgan’s daughter steps into the limelight for the first 30 seconds, chanting the mantra “We hope someday we’ll find out what happiness means.” This was done by Corgan to ensure that his daughter didn’t get jealous. Why you may ask? Well, her brother (Corgan’s son) got a chance to sing on a previous album CYR, so naturally, Corgan had to include her.

After a reiteration of the quote with a vocoder, a ’90s midwestern post-grunge riff leads the song into a wall of symphonic rock. You gotta give it to guitarists Jeff Schroeder and James Iha to give a feeling of carefreeness that really captures the story that Corgan wanted to convey.

The album takes an edgy turn with “Moss.” Guitarist Iha employs a sinister chord progression. There is a backup singer by the name of Katie Cole who literally sings the word “meow” in the song. The main lyrics start, “You didn’t see what you saw, you didn’t hear what you heard,” which sounds like Corgan is showcasing how social media distracts you from big conflicts and bad things going on in the world with cat videos.

“Night Waves” was one of the tracks that’s heavily pop-ified. Starting off with synth arpeggio — which wouldn’t seem out of place in a Wreck-it Ralph movie — the verses combine Jimmy Chamberlain’s drums that have been bit-crunched to sound as though they were part of a similar retro 16-bit video game.

The most notable songs on the album for me have to be “Empires,” “Moss,” and “Beguiled.” My favourite is “Beguiled” because it has the perfect blend of Siamese Dream / Melon Collie Smashing Pumpkins and synthp — sorry, rock opera Smashing Pumpkins. Sorry, Billy, you can’t fool some of us. The heavy buzz-saw guitar chugs with dark pad synths? Classic you!

Although it fell just short of what it could have become, as the peak of the trilogy (since it is the second act), the album just shows that they were able to adapt. The band was able to try something new and they were not afraid to put it out. For this, I thank The Smashing Pumpkins for not fading away from the limelight due to stubbornness.

Trial Track: “Beguiled.”

Rating: 7/10

The trio makes music to match their nights of hitting-up every party on the block

Danny Bengston smokes a fat spliff next to his bandmates, William Keegan and Erik Jimenez, who are making-out passionately under a gushing showerhead. In other words: together PANGEA is closer together than ever.

That’s one shot from their new official video for the song “Offer,” which follows the band and their equally wild-streaked friends around drummer Jimenez’s 25th birthday party.

“That was just a pretty typical party. We had our friends coaching us—having us do things that we might not necessarily do, but we might also do…” Bengston laughs.

These SoCal, so cool, pop-punks operate on a level of debauchery your wildest night can’t compare to. Between their infamous all-ages shows at DIY L.A. venues where kids barely remain right-side-up, together PANGEA live a lifestyle of hooliganry within the grimy and glamourous neo-Southern California music scene.

Photo by Alice Baxley.

“Especially in the last year, so many of our friends who were in the bay area moved down to L.A. for various reasons,” Bengston said. “L.A.’s a huge city, but everyone who plays music—at least all of our friends—are within a 10 mile radius. There are just so many people in so many bands. We’ll go to a party and mostly just be hanging-out with bands we’d be touring with anyway. Everyone’s really supportive; it’s really fun.”

Under L.A.’s blazing sun and oscillating waves of heat, a thriving web of innovative bands is squeezing out some of today’s best music. together PANGEA has followed suit — they’ve torn-up the scene enough to have a name given to their style of music; just like The Black Lips’ “Flower Punk” and The Growlers’ “Beach Goth.” (Two bands, moreover, with whom together PANGEA are friends).

So the band plays Bubble Grunge, “mixed with a smooth Skronk,” Bengston adds, and their Bubble Grunge music is something of a musical marvel. It’s as if the trio managed to bottle the energy buzzing from their party scene, while on a song like “The River,” also hitting listeners with a heated nostalgia in their chords.

Living Dummy, their second album, has been the anthem of so many sweaty kids in the together PANGEA crowd who’ve yelled the lyrics back to the band night after rowdy night. A trend even emerged among fans to get a heart with the name of their song, “Too Drunk To Cum,” tattooed on their bum.

“Actually, The Orwells just took a photo of a kid with a ‘Too Drunk To Cum’ tattoo the other day,” Bengston said. “I think we’re a little more concerned about what his girlfriend might think, but she was like super stoked about it. There’s a few kids with the heart and the “Too Drunk to Cum” [written] in it. It’s all started by kids. It’s cool—I have a lot of tattoos that people might think are shitty, so I’m all for it.”

Jumping from Living Dummy’s lo-fi songs about wild nights, impotency, and love lost, the sultry songs that come crashing out of their third album, Badillac, are more polished, and maybe more tamed.

“When we did Living Dummy, [Keegan] and I were both in long-term relationships, and we had been playing house parties rather than actual venues,” Bengston said. “When Badillac happened, William and his girl at the time broke up; my girlfriend and I broke up. Badillac’s overall a much darker, heavier record. I think that sort of reflects what we were going through when we were writing it.”

The trio saddled down among the drained beer cans in Bengston’s L.A. home to pour their souls into the new songs: some written from behind the angry eyes of a heartbroken lover boy. Others about the musicians’ lives: partying like full-time punks and diving into drunk and drugged days and nights. Badillac is a coming together of confusion and clarity, and of

raunchiness and sweetness, all sung in Keegan’s high-pitched screeches blazing throughout the record.

“It’s fun to play pop-y pop songs, but we try to move and always make a different record… experiment with new sounds and ways of making songs,” Bengston said.

‘Badillac’ is a made-up word by the band that doesn’t really mean anything, but “later [Keegan] found out if you google Badillac, it’s really souped-up Cadillacs or low-rider Cadillacs,” Bengston said. When asked if together PANGEA feels they relate to pimped-out Cadillacs in any capacity, Bengston replied: “I don’t know if we relate to cool Cadillacs… maybe like cool Ford Pintos!”

In a less decked-out van, the band is bumping around North America, Bengston staying sane on tour by “playing FIFA and eating sunflower seeds.”

The supercontinent doesn’t exist anymore, but luckily, together PANGEA’s a super band, and if you don’t check them out: get. bent.

together PANGEA plays La Sala Rossa Oct. 28 on the Burger Records Caravan of the Stars tour.