Beer and Pavement

I wrote this for The CoMO Collective, a collaborative local blog on which I’m working. We haven’t officially launched yet, but it’s coming. Right now, we’re just trying to build some content. In the meantime, you can read my recent post on a show I saw last weekend. It does no favors for the band or the gig, but it’s content, right? Still, when you’re done reading this piece of crap, go download their music. Eventually, I’ll do a proper recap of Nonreturner, maybe an actual interview or some shit like that.

Also, this is actually my 100th post. This took much longer than the last blog, but I’m happier with where this one is going. Stay tuned for more fun in my next 100.

Nonreturner

Nonreturner
March 19, 2011
Eastside Tavern

Sloppy can be good.

Nonreturner has not always been sloppy. They were good, not sloppy, the last time I saw them. The kind of music Nonreturner plays is not the kind one usually associates with sloppiness. This band creates soundscapes with layer upon layer, recalling early Broken Social Scene and later Radiohead in nearly every song. There’s intricacy in what they do. Nonreturner makes music that is exact and carefully planned. No one half-assing it can do that as well as Nonreturner does it.

That said, there’s a new vibe to a Nonreturner show. I’ve always believed in the Calvin Johnson school of thought where emotion is more important than skill. Nonreturner had the skill part figured out already, but in what appeared to be a potentially disastrous drunken stupor, turned out to be a show that reverberated through the night, causing any band to follow to be forgotten. Yeah, it was that good and that much fun.

Such well crafted music deserves an audience. Eastside Tavern featured a nice turnout, but Nonreturner should have a greater number of ears hearing their art. They should tour, but that would only take them away from Columbia. Still, for this Nonreturner thing to work, they will inevitably have to tour.

Maybe you missed their set at Eastside last weekend or can’t normally make it out to see them live, but there is no excuse not to listen to this band. Their music is out there for free. Yards & Gods, their record label/cooperative, makes the music its roster creates free for pillaging. Go there now and get to stealing some music like it’s 1999.

Nonreturner are unknown quantity in the CoMusic scene, but not for long.