SO IT GOES

When I first looked at the album's artwork, read the liner notes, and saw the sepia-treated glamour shots of the guys in the band, I thought that I had this band pegged. Probably these guys would be trading on their looks and fashion senses, churning out sub-mediocre 80s-retread music that didn't really go anywhere: image over substance.

Instead, So It Goes puts at least as much into the music as it does its the visuals. Historionics serves up 11 tracks of modern indie rock a la Radio 4 and The Faint. You get lots of power chords and dance-type rhythms mixed in with the occasional keyboard melodies. If Radio 4 sounded like an updated Clash musically, So It Goes does it one better: the singing on Historionics sometimes makes you think Mick Jones spent his summer vacation in Minnesota helping So It Goes with its material.


The opening track "Get On With It" sets the tone for much of the record. Its vocoded vocals come in over a catchy keyboard riff, followed by some guitar accents and a beat that you know from whatever dancefloor you've been frequenting. The band invests this and other tracks with a sincere energy and urgency that's hard to resist. "No Guns No Love" has a verse that sounds like something you'd have heard from The Skids or Stiff Little Fingers: it's a little jerky rhythmically and in-your-face vocal-wise, but then it's also dancey and political.

Another uptempo number, "Robots Are Dead," sounds impossibly radio-friendly, or blog-friendly at least. It's succinct and punchy, and its keyboards add little touches instead of being the melody driver. Usually So It Goes relies on the singing to carry the tune, actually. Choppy guitar chords and ancillary synth runs keep things moving, but the hooks come from the vocals. "The Apology" adds in some nice overtones/harmonics in its guitar lines, which is a nice touch.

The slower numbers, such as "Naked Truth," help break up the otherwise consistent formula that informs the songs. Apart from its catchy bass line, "Naked Truth" sounds like it was dropped here just for the purpose of letting the band catch its breath. It's followed by "Def Con One," which has The Clash written all over it. It has a Clash-inspired "Tommy Gun" approach to it, but with enough of its own personality to keep it from being too much of a rip-off. Plus, "Tommy Gun" is a classic.

Historionics proves that you can root your music in well-known forms and still make it worth attending to. To some, this album may sound a little too derivative. To any fan of rock-based indie dance music, though, it will probably get more than a few spins. So much for judging a band by its visuals.

-David Smith
02/06/07 - Delusions of Adequacy

This one just had the misfortune of having been misplaced in this mess I call an office, or it would've at least garnered a mention on my Best Of 2006 list last week. Produced, mixed and engineered by board-wiz/musician Ed Ackerson at Flowers Studio in Minneapolis, Historionics is a genuine groundbreaker of an album, and with the band planning on hitting the road soon, there's no time like the present to remind music nuts about this up-and-coming local outfit.

Helmed by brothers/songwriters Adam Payson and Travis Arthur and ably backed by drummer Micah Thor and bassist Brian Gruidl, SIG comes off with a post-new wave blast that produces a feeling akin to being bounced around in time musically; from the heady, experimental days of the '80s to some unknown, heretofore undiscovered future genre in the blink of an eye.

Opener "Get On With It" immediately establishes the band's original, past/present musical assault, with futuristic, robotic blasts of synth, ringing guitars and an undeniable post-disco throb. These guys remind you of the best of experimental, new-wave-y outfits from the era they draw their initial inspiration from—from the obvious (The Cars, The Clash, The Phones) to the subtle (The Fall, The Alarm, 12 Rods), all while managing to avoid any of those band's personal quirks or personal and/or political aspirations.

"Robots Are Dead" is (lyrically) a rocked-up, Devo-esque coda to The Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star," while "Seven Dials" is a soul-warming, hypnotic slice of power pop a la The Church. I'd even go so far as to say that SIG is forging a sound here that hints at the direction INXS might have gone had they continued in the mod-pop vein of "Don't Change" and had Michael Hutchence not given new meaning to the term "just hangin' around."

All in all, So It Goes are a solid, pro outfit with guitars and keys that range from soothing to paranoid in a flash, bolstered by smart, poetic lyrics and unabashed New Wave romanticism, all backed by a constant, gut-thrumming bottom end. Catchy, hook-a-riffic modern rock 'n' roll with a hell-in-a-hand-basket attitude and honest, well-crafted production and musical craftsmanship. Maybe the past is the future after all ... Check 'em out at soitgoesband.com.
- Pulse Magazine, Minneapolis

Break out your snap bracelets. So It Goes, Minneapolis' own new wave rockers, have released a new disc, Historionics, and it's a bouncing, sythn-ridden party of an album.

On their refreshing, coke-tinged slamfest of an LP, So It Goes expertly navigates the border between tacky new wave throwback group and pioneering post-punk. Not until the 8th track, "Seven Dials," does the party hit the 4 a.m. wall.

Produced and recorded at Minneapolis' Flowers Studio, the group worked with Ed Ackerson (The Replacements, Golden Smog) to capture the energy and enthusiasm that's making the group's live shows so popular.

So It Goes play the Holiday Dance Party Revolution at the Entry on Dec. 15 and the New Year's Eve Revelry at The Nomad Pub, both in Minneapolis. Historionics is available locally at Electric Fetus, Cheapo and CD Warehouse and CD Baby online.

- Perfect Porridge

There have been a series of records in the last 5 years that pay heavy homage to the 80s New Wave movement. Historionics is one of the latest in this newer, new wave movement. However, So It Goes takes a slightly more aggressive approach to rekindling the vintage sound. Sure, you have your dance-able bass lines (Ready, Control) and Casio sounding keyboard licks (Get On With It), but the vocals do a fantastic job of keeping the intensity levels up and your interest peaked. Personally, I’ve never been much of a fan of the New Wave sound. It’s a genre that has always felt plastic or forced...to me.

With that said, I have a great appreciation for what So It Goes does for this genre. They bring a raw rock attitude and energy and use these ingredients to really breathe some much needed new life in the newer, new wave movement. The final track on the record, Hot Pink Dress is a perfect example of the intensity they bring to the table. I can only imagine that So It Goes is a damn fun band to see on stage. That is, if the vocal intensity presented on the record is any indication of their live show.

The production on Historionics is very top notch. In an age of digital recordings, it’s nice to hear something independent that has a much more organic sound. It seems every other independent disc these days is over-polished and perfected on a computer. This record doesn’t sound like the musicians punched in to correct every little mistake or nuance. And that just might be the reason why the record does have a live, energetic feel to it.

The flow of Historionics moves along fairly well as I never felt one song was a repeat of the next. Defcon One (track 10) is pretty much the only low point as, for me, it is a little tedious in both lyrical and musical content. But, outside of this one track, I am very much impressed with this record.

So, to sum it up, I would recommend giving Historionics a listen, even if the old New Wave sound isn’t your cup of tea.

- Indie Matters

Quirky pop-rock saw quite a revival this year with Franz Ferdinand, The Kaiser Chiefs, OK GO!, and Panic! At the Disco all gaining a fair share of public consciousness. Four guys from Minneapolis have been paying
attention, and they are called So It Goes.

Their new CD, Histrionics, does a very, very good job duplicating the edgy new-wave guitar-discosound that made the previously mentioned bands popular. Tracks like "No Guns No Love" and "Robots Are Dead" are packed with dance floor energy as the guitars slam power chords sideways against the vocals,
not unlike the nearly-famous early 80's New Zealand outfit Split Enz.
Sometimes the off-kilter time signatures are intentionally jarring
("Propaganda"), but this album is mostly just good clean fun.

Histrionics will be right at place next to your Hot Hot Heat or Clap
Your Hands Say Yea CD. Play it when caffeine isn't doing the trick.
- Hit Session

"The sound is incredibly infectious and energetic, buoyed by the strong vocals and the dance-y atmosphere it invokes. This is certainly a cheery record but it also packs a wallop as evidenced in the raw and punchy “Ready, Control” – the crowning moment on a very solid album. " - Punkrockreviews.net