Buildings

Nothing quite captures that feeling while your moving around the concrete labyrinth like buildings. Not exactly the band, here, but those towering structures that help form our pathways. What's more fundamental to a cityscape than those brick, glass and granite effigies we build in celebration of our mastery over nature? Sure buildings like to pretend that they're slick, impenetrable facades (ok buildings don't, but their designers do -- or at least attempt to choreograph our experience, but, the truth is, they're covered in shit. From literal shit to graffiti to the residual elements in the air, buildings are virtual sponges that silently record and fossilize the miniscule strata we're lucky enough to leave behind. Here, in Missoula, we like to pretend that buildings don't dominate our landscape. The silhouettes of the Wilma, Millennium Building, and First Interstate are dwarfed by the lumbering profiles of Jumbo and Sentinel. Hell, MB and FI hoped that their glass facades would efface their presence by reflecting the surrounding skyline. We're not idiots; we realize that we need to go indoors to accomplish certain things, but, somehow, we pretend that buildings aren't part of our landscape. It's a nice luxury. (Did we mention musings in the initial post?) ... Missoula presents an interesting, if not outright contradictory, intersection between development and conservation. We like it, and we loathe it. Our blood boils over every roundabout, pedestrian path, condo, box store, renovation project. That's the rub of it. We exist in our space, but we willfully ignore or nostalgically pine ....

Minneapolis's Buildings is one of those occasions that don't melt into the peripheral. They're hard, mathematical, straight-forward, and mercurial. Reminiscent of Jesus Lizard, there's an explosive, yet reserved aggression that builds up to an infinite series of releases. Fuck, man -- kick the genre-police to the curb. it's good, old fashioned hardcore pressed through 20 years of frustration of being mired in "post" this or "post" that. It shovels its own shit. They've been around for six plus years, but 2012's Melt, Cry,Sleep is an album that announces itself. I don't remember how or when I first heard them, but I was absolutely blown away. I stalked them on the internet for a few and waited patiently for a show close to home. It didn't happen. Next option? Bring that hard-hitting stuff to Missoula. So here we are: a Building's structured demolition. Unlike cheap-shot, one-trick pony, media hounds like Howler, Buildings re-situates and erects (pun intended) Minneapolis as a benchmark for music. There's no entitlement going on here. Hardworking dudes, pounding out riff after riff and layering it with that rejuvenated, pissed-off scaffolding that allows us all to breathe a little easier. - Total Fest XI blog

Holy shit, did Big Black get back together? Oh wait, this band is called Buildings. Huh. You know, that’s actually a pretty good name for these guys. They play tightly constructed noise/math rock with post-hardcore thrown in the mix. I use the word “constructed” very consciously here. These tunes feel like they’ve been put through the shop for a while. They’ve been finely tuned and hand crafted into a very well done LP. My familiarity with this band could best be described as none, so if this is a debut, wow, good job. –Bryan Static (Cash Cow) - Razorcake

Despite their debut Braille Animal coming out in 2008, I’d never heard of Buildings up until last year. It may or may not have been the best time to discover them, since just as soon as I had a chance to listen to Braille Animal I was made aware that they had a new album coming out in only a matter of a month or two. I’m not sure if that complicates things sometimes, but the immediate reaction is always the more the merrier. Their debut was a pretty solid offering of noisy inspired rock with some Midwestern influences thrown in for good measure. That’s not all surprising though given their locale of Minneapolis, which as many know, has a rather significant history with that type of music. By and large Buildings are an obvious product from which they are from.

As far as Melt, Cry, Sleep goes, the band hasn’t necessarily changed their sound much but definitely have steered further towards the noisier side of things, with a more noticeable influence closer to Jesus Lizard…particularly on the track “I Don’t Love My Dog Anymore”. I like the fact that the production isn’t super slick, leaving it a rougher aesthetic that bands of the same style occasionally forgo, which I’ll never quite understand. In a way these guys are pursuing a similar type of path as Young Widows, at least with the first couple albums I’d say, but with an increased habit of latching onto bigger riffs at times. Not sure how much further they can go with this sound, but I’m up for hearing more. Overall, good stuff if this is your sort of thing.

Buildings – Wrong Cock (stream)

Anyone that wish to pick this up can do so by hitting up Doubleplusgood for the CD version or the recently resurrected Cash Cow Records for the LP. And of course, there is always Bandcamp for the digital only folks out there - built on a weak spot blog

Minneapolis, Minnesota trio Buildings would do their Twin Cities hardcore/alt-rock forebears in Hüsker Dü proud. Like the Dü at its most intense, Buildings generate a dense, harrowing roar so enormously outsized it’s hard to believe that it’s being manifested by three ordinary-looking dudes. Ignoring that pioneering underground act’s psychedelic pop touches, the clamor heard on Buildings’ Melt Cry Sleep leans more towards Windy City “pigfuck” noise rock, given the proper touch via the mastering job by Shellac bassist Bob Weston. And it’s evident that this three-piece has learned the lessons of the Jesus Lizard and their ilk well: the concrete-heavy rhythm section of drummer Travis Kuhlman and bassist Sayer Payne walls the listener in, isolating them within uncomfortably close confines to face singer/guitarist Brian Lake’s endless riffage and unintelligible hollering for ten unrelenting tracks. Though there are few respites amid the squalling, thunderous cacophony, Melt Cry Sleep holds interest more than capably, for the maelstrom the band whips up is downright musical (note, for instance, how those guitars swing as well as pummel and grind). There’s no special talent needed to make a big noise, but it does take a certain level of expertise to thread that noise thoroughly with hummable riffs as Buildings do here. - pop matters webzine

Buildings reminds me of the music I listened to in high school: deep derisive guitars over an anti-authoritative voice, prodigious and unrelenting, music to which I could bang my head slowly. The garage bands of the day were crude by comparison, burgeoned after the fact over time by my nostalgia. They did not share the complexity of sound found in the more mathematical and more progressive post-hardcore bands. The best I can describe my feeling of bands like Buildings and STNNNG is like matured versions of my high school taste, akin to the gourmet versions of comfort food we enjoyed long ago: sought out for their reminisceability but extremely enjoyable on their own merits.
To compare the two (and the similarity is strong enough that I feel compelled to) Buildings is much closer to Helmet than STNNNG. They are slower, drudgier, more simplistic* and less theatric. They evoke a lot of the noise-rock heroes of the ‘90s: Queens of Stone Age, Nirvana, Jawbox and Faith No More in addition to the aforementioned. The whole of the album is very consistent** and well crafted.

I’m reluctant to admit that Buildings is a period band, focusing within the genre of a previous era. Since my relationship with their aesthetic relies so much on my nostalgia its difficult for me to objectively surmise the reaction that others may have to their music. But I do think that people that were of a similar time and place will enjoy the return it afford them and to those that may not relate as well (i.e. those considerably younger) but enjoy the avant-garde noise rock will find them to be a good introduction to a style that may not be new but is still as evocative and heavy as ever. -Listeners Guid - Elementary Revolt

If you’re looking for something to use as a battering ram then I’d advise you to consider Buildings--not a physical entity, but the Minneapolis-based trio. The members of the band have obviously been hugely influenced by some of the noisier bands that featured on labels like Am Rep and Homestead back in the '80s and '90s, but rather than just rehashing an approach that worked so well back then, they’ve injected their music with enough of their own stamp to be able to stand alone as a thunderstorm of noise that it contains both nostalgic and contemporary components.

Opening with a riff that wouldn’t be out of place on an Off With Their Heads song but which is not indicative of Buildings’ music overall, “Rainboat” immediately sets the tone for the whole album: big guitar sound, albeit with the ability to move away from the crushing chords at times into a more jarring sound, drums that take a significant pounding throughout and a brooding bass that throbs away to add a huge amount of depth to the music. Brian Lake’s vocals really do bring out memories of Steve Albini, a master of this kind of music, although occasionally I do hear comparisons to Jeff Pezatti, so there really is a big Chicago influence running through this band/release. In fact at times it does sound like a cross between Big Black and Naked Raygun (check out “I Don’t Love My Dog Anymore” for a prime example of this), more than coming across like any other of the Am Rep-style bands

Ideally if I’m going to listen to a band that wants to make music that is in your face and has an abrasive edge, it still needs to have a listenable quality to it or else it just comes off as noise. Buildings quite clearly know how to produce a suitable aural assault whilst being able to provide more than just a blistering white noise: there are numerous layers throughout that allow the listener to dig beneath the initial smack in the face, thus making this more than a throwaway piece of work.

Sometimes the terms “math rock” and “post-hardcore” don’t really convey what a band is about and personally I find them a bit of a turn off when trying to find out about unknown (to me) bands. I think applying those genre tags to Buildings would be to do a disservice to the band as it has clearly produced a record that plainly rocks and doesn’t deserve to be potentially dragged down by vague labels. The other massive plus in play is that the album is of a consistent nature from start to finish, with enough variety in the ten tracks to keep it as fresh on the final track as it is at the beginning.

It’s almost two months into 2012 now and this is easily my favorite release of the year so far. Whilst Doubleplusgood are releasing the CD and digital versions of this album, the vinyl is being released through Cash Cow Productions. - Punknews.org

"Buildings blast out of Minneapolis with an album that would fit perfectly into the ’90s noise rock scene, when indie rock was jagged, mean, and psychotic. The opening “Rainboat” explodes with the fury of Hammerhead, The Jesus Lizard, and Melvins wrapped into one, and basically sets the intensity level for what follows. This music is comfort food, and I thank Buildings for doing it right." -- Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover - The Big Takeover Magazine

Rock + Noise + Minneapolis = Amphetamine Reptile Records fersure, and this band Buildings (from Minneapolis) fersurely would’ve fit nice and snug between Hammerhead and Halo Of Flies on one of those Dope Guns comps AmRep used to crank out every so often years ago.
But this ain’t then, it’s now, and now kids don’t like NOISE so much. Now, kids like rappers that sound like robot goblins telling almost-sex stories over brittle beats. And good for them. The kids gotta have their own things. But where does that leave a trio of holy hellraisers like Buildings?
I don’t have the answer, but if there are still any youngsters left that want to have their ears smacked around, I’m pretty sure Buildings would be happy to oblige.
Melt Cry Sleep is ferocious from start to finish, ferocious enough to make up for their lack of an original blueprint. These Buildings, you see, are constructed squarely upon a foundation originally engineered by The Jesus Lizard. That wouldn’t matter to the average bored, white suburban teen male ghetto-voyeur discovering NOISE for the first time, but for anyone familiar with Yow & Co., the similarities are, well, sometimes more than mere similarity.
Take the track “I Don’t Love My Dog Anymore” as The Prime Example. The entire thing is brutally Lizard, but when Buildings’ bassist Sayer Payne and drummer Travis Kuhlman lock in at about the 1:40 mark, I expected to hear David Yow pop up and snarl “You should see her use a gun…”
Other than the occasional wholesale theft of Jesus Lizard song structures, and their singer/grunter/guitarist Brian Lake’s voice being deep-sixed into the mix, I like this record. IT’S NOT BLOWING MY MIND, but Buildings are an unusually tight and aggressive band, and I bet they’ve blown the windows out of a few live venues. - third coast digest

BUILDINGS
Melt, Cry, Sleep
Doubleplusgood/Cash Cow
Wouldn’t it be nice if all the bros who listened to “hard” music were exposed to nice things? Things like this? Doesn’t it make you LOL to think about all the blue-collar homophobes out there listening to the Kinks’ “Lola” on classic-rock radio as if it’s NOT about fucking a tranny? Gay people forever!
- VICE magazine

Every single person who uses The Jesus Lizard as shorthand to describe other bands… you’re fucking lazy and you don’t really love music. Not saying that people have done that with Buildings, except way too many have. Buildings isn’t The Jesus Lizard, even though they’ve got that nihilistic vibe to them and the occasional guitar twang. They’re not Pissed Jeans, as much as singer/guitarist Brian Lake may sometimes come close to sounding like Matt Korvette. To Lake’s credit, he sounds like he spits on the mic way, way, way less. The band is trashy, they’re noisy, they’re selective about when and how they build moments and they do this exceptionally well. I’m amazed this album hasn’t gotten more press. The bass is a monster throughout the album, running along perfectly with the drums.

Standouts on the album: “Mishaped Head” which the band apparently doesn’t ever perform live or care to spell correctly, “Wrong Cock,” “Crystal City.” Hell, most of the album, really. - Fine Print Magazine