TODAY
“...I’m going to look into the eyes of the old
before the whole thing goes up in flames. In short, Ought
man across from me on the train and say, ‘Hey, everything is a band you ought to know about.
“For me, the opening lyrics to ‘Gemini’ sort of
is going to be ok.’ Today, together...we’re all the fucking
same.” But “all the fucking same” is exactly what Ought sum up the record and probably the whole reason I love
is not. The Montréal-based band has a sound that is being in this band,” says Matt May, keyboardist. “‘I reserve
strangely familiar while at the same time different from the right to be disgusted by life, I reserve the right to be
anything you’ve ever heard. Their debut album, More Than in love with everything in sight.’
“[Gemini] seems to reject total and paralyzing
Any Other Day, is an explosion of sound and expression,
an exploration of both poetic consciousness and aural apathy, as well as a popular conception of nihilism,
experimentation. It dips into psychedelic rock, at times while also highlighting the limits to the so-called mutual
reminiscent of Velvet Underground, with epic slow- exclusivity of our feelings and thoughts,” May explains.
moving crescendos of feedback and hypnotic repetition “Rejecting the notion that we must be or feel either one
that eventually burst like fireworks into cacophony; it taps thing or the other by stating that we can and do often feel
into punk in explosive lyrics delivered in a fit of barely- various conflicting things at the same time.” Is it protest
contained fury; it even licks at the surface of a forgotten music? Not exactly. But it does capture the essence of
era of art-pop, like a fire licks at the edge of a building protest and a greater sense of dissatisfaction with a no5
[sic] spring 2014.indd 6
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