Big Awesome

Ist das die neue Braid? Das wäre meine erste Frage gewesen, wenn ich die Platte durch Zufall irgendwo gehört hätte. Es ist echt unglaublich, wie sich die Stimme in manchen Facetten echt fast nach Bob Nanna anhört. Aber nein, wir sprechen hier über Big Awesome, einer jungen Band aus USA, die perfekt den Emosound der 90’er ins Jetzt transportieren. Ja, es gab eine Zeit, wo Emo noch kein Schimpfwort war und Bands wie Braid, Get Up Kids, Samiam, Texas Is The Reason, Farside, Sense Field, Gameface, Promise Ring … die Kids beglückten. Diese Zeit ist leider lange vorbei, aber Big Awesome schaffen es mit ihrer, leider nur vier Stücke langen, EP „Birdfeeder“ diese Zeit wieder ein wenig aufleben zulassen. Wer also auch heute noch auf oben genannte Bands steht und nicht zum tausendsten Mal eben diese hören möchte, bekommt hier eine wahre Alternative geboten. Ein Hit jagt den nächsten und ich hoffe echt, dass mich bald ein Album der Band erreicht.

Und wer jetzt immer noch nicht überzeugt ist, kann sich hier die 2011 erschienene EP „Better Than Numbers“ im Tausch gegen die E-Mail-Adresse runterladen. Sie erreicht wohl nicht ganz die Qualität der neuen EP, gibt aber einen guten Eindruck, was einen erwartet.

5,5/6 Punkten (Conni) - Scene2act.de

Last week I was browsing through Beartrap PR's list of bands and I came upon this "awesome" EP by South Carolina's Big Awesome. It's the perfect record for a beautiful fall and helps fill the void created by Algernon Cadwallader's recent demise. Noodley guitars and sing-a-longs! - ifyoumakeit.com

By Xan Mandell

I wouldn’t go as far as to say that BIG AWESOME beats TRANSIT at their own game, but BIG AWESOME surely puts up a good fight. Their debut EP, Birdfeeder, shares the same upbeat feel with noodle-y guitars and intricate structures, but stays bare-boned, rather than overlapped and muddied up by studio magic. The three- piece band recorded themselves with the intent of sounding as live as possible and did a terrific job catching that. With such few members, they’ve accomplished the quite difficult feat of having a large, expansive sound created around three people. Their pop/punk/emo sound is gently brushed with rock’n’roll (probably from that RUSH influence), which gives them the ability to stand out from their counterparts. They keep the whining to a minimum, so you know, your mom might like this band too.


Who influences you, what drives you, where would you like the band to have progressed in six months, when did you come together, why does this band matter?
JOHN: My everyday life influences me. It’s fun to be in a band, you know? Different things happen to you everyday. You can write them off as mundane or you can see something more in the little things. The music drives me. I’ve loved music for as long as I can remember. Obviously, we wish we got the ball rolling a little earlier, but sometimes things happen. In this incarnation of Big Awesome, we’ve been together since January, but Goblin and I have been jamming for almost two years. The band matters because we all love the music we make and love doing what we do.

If you could create the perfect/dream tour, what three bands would you have on it? Where would you tour?
GOBLIN: Rush
JOHN: Braid
TYLER: Meshuggah
The Super Diverse World Tour 2013! Let’s make it happen!

Is there a sole writer in the band or is it all a collective effort?
TYLER: The writing process is interesting for us because we all have greatly varying ideas musically- usually John or Goblin will bust a riff at practice and we’ll take it from there. It’s a very collaborative, jam-based process. John takes care of all vocal melodies and lyrics.

How long did you spend writing Birdfeeder?
TYLER: Goblin and I jammed the title track “Birdfeeder” months before “writing” began, but the other tracks came together in about two weeks.

Where are you getting lyrical inspiration from?
JOHN: I get my lyrical inspiration from my everyday life, personal life, etc. Just things I see and tend to think about. There’s a song to be written about everything, you just have to hear it or whatever.

You went down to Orlando, Florida to record Birdfeeder… Why didn’t you do it locally? Did being out of your element affect anything?
JOHN: Well, Bluffton, SC is a podunk town in costal SC. There is nothing here but shitty cover bands and us. Luckily, Savannah, GA rules and we’re right outside Savannah. But we recorded with our dear friend Tim Lemos, he was the drummer in the band I was in in high school. Rad dude. He knows his shit, makes us feel comfortable to be ourselves and ask questions in the studio, and also parties with us. Dude likes to take off his pants when drunk. It can get ugly.

How much were guitar/drum tones a factor in the recording process? Was there any experimentation or were you pretty confident with how they sounded?
GOBLIN: I had a very specific idea for the tones of both guitars and drums. There was also a lot more experimentation with the mics and their placement. We wanted to capture the feeling of live music on record, while maintaining a studio production sound. That’s not to say the tracks are over-produced, but we just wanted the absolute best representation of our jams.

Most of your songs are quite intricate, revolving around riffs rather than power chords. How do they transfer live? Are you focusing on playing the parts right or putting on a show?
GOBLIN: We recorded only what we are able to reproduce live- there’s only one additional guitar overdub on the EP. And I’ve always liked the more intricate stuff anyways. I mean, some of my favorite bands are Rush, Algernon Cadwallader, and Piglet. With that in mind, our focus is to play the show, and the show-goers will leave and be like “Yo! Big Awesome is killer jams.”

How many shows have you guys played?
JOHN: With our current line up we haven’t played many shows. We have a lot of upcoming shows and a week long tour in July along with The Fest and I Got Brains Fest. Along with a couple Savannah, GA Fests, too.

How has the amount of shows you’ve played affected the way you sound/write/play?
JOHN: We write what we want to write and enjoy it that way, but we are always trying to make the next show better than the last.

Have you been working on getting signed or are you trying to sit on the EP and see where it goes independently?
GOBLIN: Well, kinda both. We’re working on a few things.

If you could get signed, what is the dream label?
JOHN: There are so many great labels out there. Tiny Engines can do no wrong right now, Animal Style is great, Asian Man is cool. So with that being said, I want to be on whatever label Creed is signed to. I mean, come on, they wrote “Human Clay,” the best album ever.

How much time would you say Big Awesome takes out of your professional/personal life?
TYLER: We practice a lot. Now more than ever, but we manage to balance our jobs and personal lives pretty well. It’s a lot easier without a psychotic girlfriend.

Anything else you’d like to say?
COLLECTIVE: We just want to thank our friends and family for all of their support and give a big shout out to the 912 scene. - AMP Mag.

Hailing from Bluffton, SC, Big Awesome plays a hybrid style of post hardcore, pop punk, and emo not unlike The Menzingers, but not exactly like them either (in an interview with AMP Magazine they were compared to Transit, but somewhere along the way I missed the Transit boat). Big Awesome has been compared to the likes of The Promise Ring, Samiam, Braid, and the aforementioned Menzingers, and I can hear hints of each (excluding Braid who I’ve never listened to) in Birdfeeder but the songs are constructed so that they show their influence but aren’t direct copies either. The EP’s four songs are angular and off kilter, most likely born of frustration. The EP’s standout moment is the closing track “Living With Love,” the most overtly poppy song off the bunch. Fans of any of the band’s mentioned above should give Big Awesome a listen. - oklahomalefty.blogspot.com

Big Awesome are a three-piece indie rock band form South Carolina who display a love for punk and pop that shows how much they care for a bit aggression while being accessible to more ears than those who may reside in a downtown warehouse. Birdfeeder is a 4-song EP which has them creating and offering the kind of music that could easily be power anthems for anyone (of all ages) who wishes to take them on. It sounds like the guitars are double tracked in the recording studio, so I would be curious to hear how they perform these songs live, as I’m sure it would song incredible. As for the material, some of the songs focus on the down times of life but if you’re as young as the band or maybe dealing with the divorce of your fourth wife, they simple say “don’t be so fucking cynical” and make sure to play in a way that presents optimism. In fact, they are on the optimistic side so if you want to hear music that reflects any misery you may be going through, Birdfeeder will pick you up. - thisisbooksmusic.com

Big Awesome push a tight melodic sound that’s smooth around the edges and finely polished. It’s a refreshing sound in today’s punk scene, harking back to the early days of one Minus the Bear. "Grey’s Birthday" cements this comparison, as the opening lyrics have obvious thematic similarities to the subjects broached in the Highly Refined Pirates opener "Thanks for the Killer Game of Crisco Twister" – at least Big Awesome have shorter titles. However, it’s only the EP’s first track which really echoes the Minus the Bear sound and once the subtle nuances of Big Awesome can be appreciated, Birdfeeder becomes its own expression.

The EP never fully blooms, but reaches its apex with the pulsing staccato bass of "Birdfeeder" and the uber-catchy chorus of "Living With Love". At other times, Birdfeeder and Big Awesome seem unsure of what they do best – undulating between attempts at slick melody or grand punk bombast – and it weakens their overall sound. Yet, after just ten minutes of Big Awesome they solidly display a scythe-sharp ear for melody and a boisterous pop appetite, both of which lay a solid foundation for Big Awesome to perfect their sound in the near future.
- puregrainaudio.com

Catchy melodies and tricksy guitar work lift the spirits on Big Awesome's latest EP which is replete with technically impressive riffs and memorable tunes. Opener Grey's Birthday lets every instrument shine; guitars ring out with controlled and clean but complex riffs, and vocals soar in melodic waves. A punk edge makes itself heard on Birdfeeder which holds gruff vocals backed by shouted gang harmonies, but again those controlled and impressive guitars deftly build layers without it ever becoming murky, these are addictive tunes with staying power. The mention of control may make you think 'restrained' and 'dry' but that couldn't be further from the truth, check out Drawing A line In The Sand for a blast of the super catchy and emotional power of the record, in fact, all four tunes on the EP have strong emotional cores and are packed with energy, making them great to sing along and thrash about to with reckless abandon. Recommended. - roomthirteen.com

Big Awesome is a mighty proposition as band names go, but this three-piece are trying their best to put their money where their mouth is with their debut EP ‘Birdfeeder.’ With comparisons to nineties emo and Braid especially, they have a lot to live up to with Birdfeeder, and for a debut, self-released EP, they sound remarkably complete and focussed.

‘Grey’s Birthday’ flutters along airily á la Jack’s Mannequin, with dreamy, carefree guitars creating the perfect road trip song. There is a recklessness and genuine euphoria to the track which is refreshing.

Bass led title track ‘Birdfeeder’ is a slightly different proposition. Sharper, harsher gang vocals are present against the loose, melodious guitar sound which has gained a slightly jagged edge. Discordant in places, but never unnecessarily, the track earns its’ status as lead single by being catchy.

‘Drawing A Line In The Sand’ is more classically punk rock, with obvious hints of The Menzingers about it. Punchier and more aggressive than the rest of the EP, this song shows a band with much potential and a varied style.

Closing track ‘Living With Love’ is a bitter, punk track and a fitting conclusion. The track fizzes along nicely without a true explosion, a long fuse without a detonation. This shows not a failure in song writing however, but a refinement to the sound that Big Awesome put onto record. There is a knowing intelligence to the tracks that always keeps them sounding fresh.

This is an EP of contrasting sounds; it veers from the peaceful to the chaotic, the low-energy to the high-energy but always retains a sense of perspective and is fun to listen to as well. It crams a lot into its’ four tracks and makes for a very promising album appetiser indeed. Big Awesome? They’re on their way, definitely.

3.5/5 - alreadyheard.com

Big Awesome is a three-piece from South Carolina who have this indie take on powerpop going on on “Birdfeeder”. Or just call it nineties emo with Braid influences and be done with it. The four songs on this EP come with enough bounce and energy to get you on your way but they’ve added all these intricate little guitar swirls and busy start/stop rhythms to show off their Minus The Bear appreciation. But then there’s “Drawing A Line In The Sand” which sounds like The Menzingers.

For just four songs they have quite a lot going on but pull it off nicely and if they can keep this up throughout a full-length, they might just live up to their name.
Score: 7 out of 10 - punkrocktheoryzine.blogspot.be

I have never been in to emo, but Big Awesome’s four track EP Bird Feeder offers a solid argument for me to give the genre another shot. It might be a bit of pigeonholing for me to call The Big Awesome emo, their sound more accurately lies somewhere in-between emo and indie, with a dash of the nasally vocals that A New Found Glory made so popular and just the right amount of distortion.

Each track is raw is the best sense of the word, the listener feels like the band is letting them in on a personal level and therefore is album to connect with the emotional content of each track. There are moments of inescapable melody that will catch in your head but, the strongest element of this EP is the gritty guitar parts, I cannot get enough. - cc2konline.com

Sich BIG AWESOME zu nennen, zeugt schon ein wenig von gutem Selbstbewusstsein. Aber das dürfen die Herren aus Bluffton, USA auch haben. Denn diese kleine EP zeigt das Trio musikalisch gut und vor allem abwechslungsreich (was natürlich mit vier Songs einfacher ist, als mit ... sagen wir mal 12 ...) und spannend.

In Deutschland wäre diese Band vermutlich etwas für Arctic Rodeo Recordings, weil sich auch hier ein großer 90iger Emo-Einschlag findet. Man denkt an Bands wie SAMIAM und THE PROMISE RING. Bei neueren Sachen würde ich dann in Richtung MENZINGERS, ATTACK IN BLACK oder PILOT TO GUNNER schielen, da auch hier in den Songs keine Radneuerfindungen geleistet werden, sich die Band lieber auf das Zusammenspiel zwischen Akkorden und Gesang verlässt.

Auf der anderen Seite können BIG AWESOME aber auch sehr verspielt werden und klimpern dann mit cleanen Gitarren herum. Genau hier kommt dann dieser 90iger Emo-Einschlag besonders deutlich durch. Und genau hier liegt die Stärke der Band aus South Carolina: sie ist zwar immer melodisch, aber niemals flach. BA haben sehr runde Songs, die sie aber nicht zu sehr geschliffen haben, sodass man sich sogar an den Rundungen noch schneiden kann. Durch das Wechseln zwischen clean und verzerrt gibt es auch noch ein schönes Spannungsfeld, in dem sich BIG AWESOME austoben.

Nie wirklich aggressiv (der Gesang bewegt sich aber gerne mal in der Nähe dieser Grenze), aber auch niemals seicht (vielleicht muss ich deswegen an die neue MENZINGERS denken ...) spielen sie hier vier Songs, die Punk, 90iger Posthardcore und Indie miteinander vereinen und vor allem Lust auf mehr machen. Würde mich echt interessieren, wie BIG AWESOME voller Länge klingen. - Burnyourears.de

Blimey...these guys are happy! They appear to love Algernon Cadwallader and like a bit of gang vocals too. You can tell they're going to be positive by the name of the band - like they're so BIG!!....and AWESOME!!...or something...Anyway, there are 4 tracks here and this 3-piece comes from South Carolina. The first song is some poppy and jovial indie rock with a hugely positive vibe to it – it’s a good start. The chorus of "Birdfeeder" brings the gang vocals in full force. If I was to presume that the Football, etc. song, "Safety", was sung by a human to a bird then lyrically this song could be the bird answering to the person ("I know its your kindness that helps me fly / I rely on people like you") . Maybe I should stop being so obscure..."Safety" is surely a bird singing to another bird..or maybe it is a metaphor - who knows...? The last 2 tracks are upbeat too and retain the high levels of poppiness. They veer more towards punk and have big choruses with more of a singalong vibe. “Drawing A Line In The Sand” starts off gently, then speeds up and has a bit of a Menzingers thing going on in the vocals. It is probably the most positive sounding thing I have listened to in a while which is unusual as I generally love a bit of misery and despair. I prefer the more varied first two songs but it’s an enjoyable listen. - Collective-Zine

One of the problems of being an indie rock band these days is finding ways to give your audience something they haven’t already heard. In releasing an EP like Birdfeeder to a generation that has been weaned on the likes of The Dismemberment Plan and Built To Spill, Big Awesome run a very real risk of adding their name to indie rock’s already overcrowded graveyard — one which is littered with the corpses of white, male guitar bands from the early noughties.
Whether Big Awesome actually have anything new to add to the genre remains to be seen. Whilst their material certainly isn’t as clunky as their unfortunate choice of band name, it hardly breaks the mould — fans of the Seattle indie band Minus The Bear may feel a particularly sharp sense of déjà entendu here, especially on the road-trip rock of “Grey’s Birthday,” which could have been lifted straight off Highly Refined Pirates. Well-worn influences aside, musically, Birdfeeder jangles along harmlessly enough and comes across as a remarkably well-produced and tight release from a three-piece. Guitar lines are layered and the rhythm section is impressive, particularly on the multi-layered “Living With Love.” That said, vocalist John Blanken’s lyrics are lost on much of the EP, and when they are audible, they turn out to be cringe-worthy college-rock clichés, such as, “Cruisin’ to the island tonight, me and the boys have got nothing better to do/ We’re going to the triangle, but we’re a bunch of squares.”
Frustratingly, there are some genuinely catchy melodies to be had here, on the title track and the aforementioned Minus The Bear-plagiarising “Grey’s Birthday” especially, but overall Birdfeeder is an EP of contradictions. Hopefully the trio’s upcoming full length release will provide some more definitive answers. - Verbicide Mag.

Looking for a heavy dose of nostalgia? Take four songs by Big Awesome and call me in the morning.

Big Awesome’s recent EP “Birdfeeder” is enough to make even the tone-deaf and unappreciative feel like they’re a kid again, walking the halls of high school.

Flashback to 2002. This year marked the release of albums like Taking Back Sunday’s “Tell All Your Friends” and New Found Glory’s “Sticks and Stones.” It was a monumental year for music, to say the least. Now in 2012, Big Awesome can join the ranks with such bands because of the simple feeling the album pumps through your nervous system.

And the name is fitting. Big Awesome has a big sound. However, if asked to label this EP as punk or otherwise, I do not think I could. That’s the thing about bands like Big Awesome, what makes them better is all the genres their listeners can label them.

“Birdfeeder” is a little bit of punk, a little bit of alternative and a little bit of indie rock. You could even say the lyrics are has also some emo in it –the best parts of emo, that is-. From the opening sing-along-song type lyrics of “Grey’s Birthday,” to the begging question, “Do you live alone” in “Living with Love” there’s something for everybody in Big Awesome’s four song set list.

Vocalists John Blanken and Colin Czerwinski each have something so familiar and comforting about their voice it would only be fitting to enjoy a slice of warm apple pie while indulging in “Birdfeeder.”

“Grey’s Birthday” sings “I’m just waiting to see what happens.” So are we Big Awesome, so are we.

Rating: 5/5

*I am giving this a 5 because not only have I been listening to it non-stop since I got the link, but also because the sound of this band triggered something inside of me that I have not felt since I was a teenager. When I put my headphones on and close my eyes, I can see the halls I once wandered at 17, I can see the kids standing at their lockers judging me for listening to my music and wearing the clothes I wore, I can smell the stale scent of the old building, and I can hear the familiar tone of music that was once so close to my heart.

- Vents Mag.

outh Carolina indie-punkers Big Awesome have entered a Nashville recording studio to lay down their debut full-length, and we’ve got video to prove it. The band have uploaded a four-minute clip of them jamming in studio, checking levels, etc.

Astute observers will note the album’s producer (in the black shirt), who is fairly well-known within the SoCal scene, and his band has an album of their own out in May. Click here to watch for yourself.

Big Awesome’s debut EP was released last month on A-Reaction Records. - Dying Scene

Bluffton, SC's Big Awesome has released a new EP entitled Better Than Numbers. It's available for streaming and download at their Bandcamp page. - Punknews

Hailing from the coast of South Carolina (and, somehow, suburban Scranton PA), Big Awesome are a newly-formed (allegedly late 2010) four-piece outfit who are reported to have recorded their debut EP, “Better Than Numbers” in five days. You might expect them to sound a little sloppy or unfocused, but you’d be tragically wrong.

“Better Than Numbers” is three songs of highly polished, well-crafted songwriting that is very melody driven a la Jackson/Jackson United. Genre-wise, they toe the line between progressive shoe-gaze indie rock and post-hardcore, much in the way that Cave In’s “Antenna” did. I know “Antenna” garnered Cave In a lot of flack for the stylistic change, but it was a well-written, big sounding album that probably fits in to the scene better now than when it was first released.

But I digress. Big Awesome features a razor-sharp rhythm section (Jamie McLain on bass and Marek Belka – no, not THAT Marek Belka – on drums) that holds the low-end down tight, allowing guitar/vocalists Colin Czerwinski and John Blanken to trade off soaring, swirling guitar riffs and dueling vocals that project a much larger sound than the four-piece that they are.

“Pay Attention” is a little more mid-tempo than the EP’s other two tracks, and features a harmonic-driven guitar melody and three-part harmonized vocals. “Chariots,” I think, best epitomizes the collective elements of their sound. Lyrically, it hints that they are aware of their bright future, but are able to downplay that matter-of-factly as though they are “just a couple of guys who heard what you have heard.”

“Better Than Numbers” is probably the brightest, catchiest song on the album, and has an interesting change in tempo and melody about 2/3rds of the way into the song that encourages the listener to “hold on to all your memories, because they’re all we have.”

Again, don’t be fooled by the fact that Big Awesome have been a band for, like, twelve minutes; these boys sound tight, focused and driven. Do yourself a favor and jump on the bandwagon now. - Dying Scene