Altsounds - Autodrone- Panic

I was told I would love this album. I had it on good authority that this band was awesome and the record would rock me to the core. Imagine my surprise when I popped it in and began dry heaving. I wish I knew enough words to fully express how much I despised what was coming out of my speakers. Unbearable screeching that can’t seem to find the beat over the fuzzily droning music wrapped up in a crappily produced package. Did they mean to do this? Or is this like the indie snob who insists he can play, but uses ‘alternate tunings you wouldn’t understand.’ Maybe it’s supposed to suck in some pretentious abstract artsy jerk way.

I instantly contacted those who recommended it, completely offended and quite shocked. Its like when your boyfriend gets you a football jersey of his favorite team for your birthday instead of that cute sweater you had been dropping hints about for weeks. Do you know me AT ALL?!

What became interesting to me, is in my describing all of the things I hated about the album to those who sent it to me, I started to see the value of it. The things that made me mildly sick to my stomach were the exact same things that made them LIKE the album. They like the screeching. They like the production. They like the songwriting. Well now its not that the album sucks, it’s that I don’t know how to listen to it. Damn.

After about 8 listens, I was starting to hear something else. I heard more Sleater-Kinney and less strangled cat. I discovered that there were actually choruses, they just don’t sound like what I am used to…and that’s not necessarily bad. It sounded like it could be the soundtrack to Pee-Wee’s playhouse with its offbeat, weirdo over-styling, forcing images of Cowboy Curtis and Miss Yvonne doing their John Waters-inspired dances popping into my head. It was quite disturbing, but like a morbidly obese person slipping on an icy sidewalk, I couldn’t look away. I used to have a bigger appreciation for the ‘not normal,’ but have become lame in my old age. Casting aside my years of industry experience to find the artists with the most mass appeal, I was not only kinda digging it, I was freaking loving it!

After spending nearly an entire day with Autodrone on loop, I was hooked. I had been growing bored with most new music because it all sounds pretty much the same, so I was surprised it took me so long to fully appreciate it. Panic, while giving the finger to conventional standards of popular music, manages to be just as infectious as the most contrived pop sensations. While I still maintain that the second half is better than the first, the EP works, making me interested in knowing more about this strange group of NYC hipsters.

Autodrone online