Trouble Everyday
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Trouble Everyday

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The best kept secret in music

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"Days Vs. Nights: Stylus Review"

Trouble Everyday
Days Vs. Nights
Turnstile
2004
A

One look at the charts will reveal that the harsh guitar textures associated with late ‘70s “post-punk” are now quite acceptable as American pop product (they’ve been huge in England since the Pixies at least), so what makes Days Vs. Nights, the debut release from Philadelphia quartet Trouble Everyday, so exceptional may not be immediately clear. You could even sum them up as a Franz Ferdinand that takes shit really seriously if you don’t want to risk sounding easy to please.

To paraphrase what Rob Sheffield once wrote of the Ramones, Trouble Everyday build their music out of a crass fantasy, playing the giddiest peaks of their favorite songs, leaving all the other business for their proggier peers. Unlike the Ramones, their touchstones are immortal underground anthems like “Debaser”, “Academy Fight Song” and “Public Image” rather than “Henry VIII, I Am” and “Palisades Park”. That part of a Les Savy Fav track you can sing along with, that one song they’re always playing on the college radio station, that one number that gets everybody jumping a little higher than everything else. It’s as if they’re trying to make Chairs Missing push like Pink Flag, distilling a quarter century of innovation and exploration into a sonic rush that any adolescent could appreciate. Anyone who thinks this isn’t a commendable feat probably worries too much about the historical value of their precedents, rather than enjoying the actual musical pleasures. For fans of the sound, the purity and consistency of this CD is more than enough relevance.

Buzzsaw guitar and a throbbing rhythm that splits the difference between pummel and groove are the first thing you hear, followed by layers of caustic yet melodic guitars (Bruce Gilbert and Joey Santiago going *click!*, Interpol getting their testicles electrocuted—yet somehow their hair still looks good) and singer Kyle Costill voicing his frustration in a brief series of lines until the band joins him in an anxious cheerleader chant (it wouldn’t be out of place if they started yelling BE! NEUROTIC! B! E! NEUROTIC!). The voices and guitars bob and weave over the beat, as the tension keeps ratcheting higher before SNAP! New song. Then another. “Written In Snakes” slows things to a crawl for oh, two minutes, and then they’re stomping their feet and drone strumming again while we slam our heads into the stereo speaker in sympathy. After all, we’re pissed off that people don’t say what they mean, that people lead bullshit lives, that all this running around isn’t going to get us anywhere, that they’re failing you, that you’re failing them, that this isn’t as bad as it gets. Well, at least when Trouble Everyday is reminding us.

It’s not until the last third that the wall they keep bashing against starts to give way. “Connection” is the sound of somebody deciding to make that leap, move to that town, commit to that cause, be with that person (“It’s getting serious—I want to be serious”). And “What’s Wrong (With Always Being Right)” is the leap itself, guitars vast and ringing rather than claustrophobic (though the beat’s still persistent as fuck), our hero “feeling suspicious but [with] nowhere to hide”, surrendering to vulnerability and praying he won’t regret it while killing you softly with five repeated notes on a keyboard. “It Can Never Be Done” is an instrumental because they don’t know what happens next either (hint: it involves the repeat button on your CD player). Actually, judging by the “you’re welcome” found in the liner notes, they might know that too.


STYLUSMAGAZINE.COM'S ALBUM OF THE WEEK - AUGUST 15 - AUGUST 21, 2004







Reviewed by: Anthony Miccio
- Stylus Magazine


"Days Vs. Nights: Pitchfork Review"

7.7
It isn't clear which "Camden" Trouble Everyday are referring to in the title of the opening cut on their debut album, Days vs. Nights. The post-punk parvenus find the majority of their musical roots across the Atlantic-- aping all of the usual post-punk suspects with their peppy breed of pellucid, chorus-driven rock-- but Trouble Everyday hail from Philadelphia, just over the river from Camden, N.J. Either way, Trouble Everyday waste no time laying their strengths out on the table. The track nicely sets the tone for this taut collection as crunchy but limpid guitars steer the song toward a classic two-word chorus: "Red light", brays vocalist Kyle Costill repeatedly over a set of tension-relieving change-ups. The song-- like Days vs. Nights as a whole-- is constructed with familiar materials: urgent eighth-note guitar attacks, syncopated vocal yelps, and jumpy melodic bass lines. But these seemingly run-of-the-mill source elements are deftly handled and transformed into something potent by near-perfect mixing and the band's earnestness.

Trouble Everyday are all about distillation: At under a half-hour, Days vs. Nights economically maneuvers through 11 songs, each complete with air-tight structure and an endlessly hummable refrain. Although derivative to the point of being almost obtrusive, these songs are uniformly catchy-- and ain't that the bottom line? Days vs. Nights hits all the major touchstones, cavorting from infectious two-minute buzz of "Kids (Make a Living)" to the dirgeful, Joy Division-style post-punk of "Code Word" to the scuzzed-up sensitive guy new wave of "(Close Enough to Call it) Even". But Trouble Everyday's influences extend beyond the usual anglophilic tributes to include a number of American bands. "Written in Snakes"-- with its shout-sung lyrics and jammy, open-sounding recording quality-- is reminiscent of Lonesome Crowded West-era Modest Mouse. And songs like the aforementioned "Code Word" owe not only their stylistic founding fathers, but also latter-day torchbearers such as The Rapture and Interpol.

As strange as it may sound, without those modern heirs a band like Trouble Everyday might not be enjoying the attention they're getting. For post-punk revivalists-- even those as adroit as Trouble Everyday-- it's best of times, worst of times: The cause cŽl?bre of bands like The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand means increased exposure for but also an inevitable (and, in this case, unjust) backlash against other purveyors of the form. Trouble Everyday even offer what could be construed as acknowledgment of this problem when on "Camden", Costill sings, "Hey you, what you think about the new fad?" Unfortunately, Costill's ironic salvo will likely do little to stop the knee-jerk reactions against his band.

-Sam Ubl, October 22nd, 2004
- Pitchfork Media


"Days Vs. Nights"

"Awesome, rhythmic r'n'r with a postpunk feel, Trouble Everyday easily avoid the post-postpunk bandwagon, as their intentions are truly original and different. Smart songwriting and a blend of sounds (taking cues from everything from Joy Division to Q+Not U and Fugazi) form a concise record" - Punk Planet


Discography

Days Vs. Nights, Turnstile Records; 2004
Sympathy EP, Basic Function Recordings; 2005
The Flock, 12" Princehouse Records: 2006

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Bio

Trouble Everyday seamlessly blend insight, energy, and the glaring contradictions inherent in rock and roll, to offer a refreshing perspective on beat heavy punk rock. The Philadelphia trio has made its presence known in a relatively short time, releasing the critically praised full length Days Vs. Nights in 2004 and recently following up with the iTunes EP sympathy. Since forming a year and a half ago, Trouble Everyday have brought the party to NY, London, Dallas, Los Angeles, and other cities nationwide.