I Just Read About That…

THUMPER was mentioned in the Irish Drummers book.  They actually have TWO drummers, (Stephen D’arcy is in the book).

I hadn’t heard of them (They are reasonably new).  This EP collects their first few singles and adds a couple of other tracks.

The rest of the band is: oisin leahy furlong – vocals & guitar; alan dooley – guitar & backing vocals; brendan mcglynn – guitar & backing vocals; joey gavin – bass; stevie d’arcy – drums; shane holly – drums.

“(You’re Bringing Me) Down” opens the set with a rocking fast chords.  It’s a catchy melody with a simple but effective guitar riff on top.  Clean vocals lead to a catchy chorus with a rumbling bass and roaring guitars. I love that at 90 seconds the song changes sonically to as a glitchy guitar playing the chords before returning back to the fast rumbling joy of the verse.  The song more or less finishes after 3 and a half minutes, but the full version of the song tacks on a three minute jam to the end.

“AFL” pummels along in a similar vein–fast catchy fuzzy rock with lots of feedback.  Even though the song is pretty much nonstop, they do put in some interesting musical dynamics to mix it up.

“In My Room” is quieter and less fuzzy, although it opens with a squall of noise.  It does still have a fast and bouncy chorus.  “Half Light” is a woozy acoustic song with a woozy filter on the whole thing.  The guitar solo is feedbacky and almost out of tune. And it ends with a wall of noise.

The final song is ten minutes long. “3AM & Restless” takes off right from the get go. It’s relentless song with a lot of sounds going on (spoken conversations, screaming or feedback or something).  But after two and a half minutes the song slows down and stretches out.  Big chords ring out while a spoken conversation or something seems to be going on underneath them.  the end of the song stretches into a slow noisy jam of scratches and synth sounds, kinda like they had the tape rolling and just keep messing around with their gear until it ran out.

The ending is a little uninspired, but the rest o the EP is fantastic and I look forward to more from them.

[READ: February 15, 2021] Trespassers

This is the story of Gabby Woods and her family.  They are headed up to their vacation house on the lake.  It’s an annual trip that they all enjoy very much.

Gabby’s older sister, Morgan, is sort of out of the picture (she’d too old to hang with Gabby and their younger brother Simon), but she’s nice enough.  Gabby’s parents are kind and funny, but they have just learned that Gabby’s dad is going to have to take a new job in a different state.  This might be their last time visiting their lake house.

Gabby is a bookworm which Simon finds very boring.  He hates that Gabby wastes her time reading when there’s so much to do at the lake.  Gabby does put her book down from time to time, but really, a vacation is about resting.

When they arrive they see their neighbor Gene. Gene is an older man who has lived in his house for decades. He is a nice guy and he looks forward to the Woods’ family’s arrival.

As the Woods canoe around the lake, they approach Gabby’s favorite building–a beautiful architectural marvel with a gorgeous view of the lake.  It was built by Walter Goldworth, a Chicago architect who married a model, Angela.  He built this place for her. They were very happy until they both disappeared and have not been seen since.  The house has been vacant for decades.

Gabby’s mom knows a little about the story.  She was in the house once when she was little.  The family had a big party, but shortly after the party the Goldsworths disappeared.  There was no evidence of them moving or leaving.  They just vanished.  Gabby guesses that they were murdered and her mom says that that sounds like a good story and Gabby should write it.

This year the neighbors on the other side of them are new.  Morgan says they are weird.  They have two kids Gabby and Simon’s age (Paige and Bryan) and Gabby and Simon are instructed to play with them.  Paige looks at them and explains immediately that their parents made them come over.

Paige and Bryan are incerdibly unlikable, like shockingly so. They mock Gabby and Simon asking if they are country folk who play the banjo.  They are from Chicago, after all.  The Woods are from Green Bay, so no, not country folk. We quickly learn that Paige likes to shoplift and Bryan likes firecrackers.

They are walking and talking (arguing really) when they come on the entrance to the Goldsworth house.  Paide and Bryan want to break in, but Gabby and Simon say no way.  The kids fight and go home separately.

Gabby starts writing her murder mystery–I like how her story scenes are drawn in grey scale. Word gets out that she’s writing the story.  Simon thinks it’s just as bad to write as to read. Gene is fascinated that she’s writing it and can’t wait to read it and Paige is sarcastic about the story from the start.

But when Paige suggests that Gabby needs more concrete details to make her story better, Gabby starts to listen.  And what better way to get concrete details than to break into the house?

All four kids decide to sneak in.  Fortunately, they find a door unlocked so they don’t have to break any windows.  The place is tidy and covered in sheets.  The girls find a cigarette lighter with initials on it.  But before they can determine what to do with this information, they hear a crash–the boys knocked down a bookshelf.

As the girls tidy up they find a photo album.  In that photo album is picture of Gene with the Goldsworths.  He seems to be staring at Angela.  They also realize that it’s Gene’s initials on the lighter.  Could he has been the reason for the Goldsworths’ disappearance.  Could he have killed them out of jealousy?

When you put the creative minds of Paige and Gabby to write the story of Gene the murderer, their imaginations get the best of them and they start to see evil in everything that Gene does.

Did he just sneak into the house?  What’s in that box?  Why does he have an axe?

It’s a little far-fetched (I mean, the “murders” would have happened like thirty years ago, I hope there’s no evidence still lingering around), but it is fun to see the girls get themselves worked up about what Gene is up to.

Despite that, there’s a good amount of fun to be had.  Gabby’s stories are enjoyable. Gene proves to be an interesting character and the boys’ softer side is sweet.

There’s some more plotlines to the story as well.  The girls antagonize each other.  Well, really Paige is the antagonizer.  She seems to be lying about a lot of stuff, including what her parents do for a living.  Why would she lie about that?  The answer is interesting but a little underused.

I had a hard time believing that Gabby and Simon could somehow befriend the two horrible children.  Even if their parents made them.  They do each reveal a nicer side and I suppose that gets them to be less horrible.

Bard does a lot with very few lines.  The faces of the characters are almost like stick figures but they’re pretty effective and emotive.  There were a few times, however, when I felt the characters were hard to tell apart.  In the beginning, Bryan and Simon are wearing the same color shirt.  So with that and their mostly featureless faces, the only thing you had to go by was hair.  And Morgan and her mom have the same hair color and even similar style.  It wasn’t often a problem, but I did think Morgan was their mom on more than one occasion (which made her answers very puzzling at first).

Despite these quibbles, I really enjoyed the book and it was fun getting caught up in the mystery.