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William and New Republic…

William - Surface the VesselWilliam is a solo venture from Will Goodyear, who started out in various metalcore acts like Between the Buried and Me, Hopesfall, and Prayer for Cleansing. "Surface the Vessel" is his second album and Textbook Music debut, and it's also my first exposure to his work under this banner. I'm not entirely sure who handles what on the album since a few outside contributors are credited as simply "additional musicians", but I know that Goodyear himself handles vocals and plays numerous instruments, so I'm assuming he does the bulk by himself, and whatever the case it's very impressive. I don't like the notion of "solo albums" at all, and as a result I had some definite reservations about what to expect from this record, but within seconds of first pressing play I was stunned. If he hasn't already, this dude should quit playing heavy music and devote all of his time to this project, because this material is fucking amazing and displays stronger songwriting than anything I've heard from his past bands. Excellent singing, nice and consistent musical atmospheres that ebb and flow between subtle dynamic shifts, a superb recording that allows the lush instrumentation to layer together with absolute clarity, etc. This is basically a perfect emo/indie rock album with "alternative rock" leanings (for lack of a better term)—to the point where I could totally see this kind of thing getting huge on the radio or something like that. Many of these songs simply possess certain qualities that an enormous audience could appreciate, but I want to stress that I don't view that as detracting from the album in any way. I'm incredibly impressed by what's offered here and have the utmost respect for this guy as an artist. Seriously, this is just an excellent, excellent display. And god damn does this fucker have some of the greatest looking artwork I've seen in ages... Awesome.

William "Life Apart"
William "Magazines"

This one was just released yesterday, so it's brand spankin' new and comes very much recommend from my end. I'll need to check out his prior album as well to see how it holds up against this masterpiece. Please do pick one up for yourself if you enjoy the songs above:

Textbook Music
Very Distribution

New Republic - LibertadNew Republic is (sort of) a relatively new band led by Panamanian brothers David and Jonathan Julca, who relocated to Ohio in the mid-90's and initially played under the name of The Pits. So, technically New Republic isn't a new band, but it is a new band name, and "Libertad" is their first release under said name (on Tribunal Records). They refer to this as an EP, but with a total of seven tracks (plus a bonus track) in 35—40+ minutes it does play more like a full-length. I guess you'd basically consider this material a blend of contemporary emo and "alternative rock" (I hate to keep using that term, but sometimes it just fits), which at times leans towards a slightly heavier edge that does in fact owe more to actually rocking than it does to the catchy vocal hooks and melodies carrying the bulk of the material. On occasion it feels like the band wanders away from the focus of a song and either lets things run on for too long or strays into some riffing/vocal textures that don't quite feel comfortable, which is unfortunate, but when they nail it they can really crank out some massively catchy shit, and I'm a sucker for that stuff. Sometimes I'm mildly embarrassed by the fact that I can get sucked in by a good hook, and I know most of the people who read this site hate this stuff, but fuck it, what can I say? A good song is a good song, and this is another band that with a little more work could become a huge success. Maybe New Republic will be the next act to get snatched away from Tribunal's developing grounds?

New Republic "Pride.Time.Love"

Pick it up if you happen to like it, too:

Tribunal Records
Very Distribution

Comments

  1. that first William track reminds me A TON of Elliot’s False Cathedrals. I’m sure you’ve heard it, but if you haven’t, its post-Falling Forward stuff and pretty good. They since broke up but their last album was all unreleased stuff and quite nice.

    7.19.2006 | By Expose Music

  2. i was really curious about this william project and now i mus say i greatly enjoy this alot. im gonna have to pick thais up. some serious talent that will goodyear has. looking forward to hearing more.

    7.19.2006 | By chris

  3. damn the song is so catchy,especially william, its been a while since you post something like this..speaking of catchy you should check “infidels forever”
    have ever heard of them andrew?
    if you have you should post their material here..

    7.19.2006 | By reno

  4. alien ant farm? what the fuck?

    7.20.2006 | By Anonymous

  5. Reno, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Infidels Forever, I’ll have to look into ‘em.

    Anonymous, I knew someone would say something.  Yes.  Terrible band name, but great band.  Sorry.

    7.20.2006 | By Andrew Aversionline

  6. This William thing is really good. Do you know what instruments he plays on it? I know he was drums/vocals in BTBAM, but does he do guitars on this too?

    7.20.2006 | By Anonymous

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