Celebration Guns

‘The Me That Used to Be’ by Celebration Guns is slow, airy indie rock with an intense, mathy approach. “Celebration Guns is a combination of nostalgia, energy, complexity and joy,” the band says. They describe their music as based around a “tireless effort to blend… elements of dream pop, indie rock, and noise pop… in deceptively complex music that’s catchy and filled with hooks.” There’s certainly a strong pop sensibility in here, but these guys have a melancholy edge that really bites. This is supposed to be easy to listen to, but at the same time the band makes an effort to challenge listeners by stretching the lyrical and aesthetic themes this sweet, sultry music can portray. These guys really know what they’re doing. Check out ‘The Me That Used to Be’ below! - Rock the Pigeon Music Blog

“Classic snare work. Classic dream-prog-rock-pop. Weird and odd presentation of fabulous lyrics. It’s a good combo, don’t you think? And best of all, with Justin Weir’s vocals transitions you from British new-wave and back, seemlessly. Calm, focused, delicate, affable – all with the kind of rock that you know you dig. CELEBRATION GUNS just served you for the court of no-defiance. ‘Consider The Source’ is a fabulously fun song.” - ComeHereFloyd

Oddly enough, Celebration Guns has run into some confusion about their name. It comes from a Stars song off their album Your Ex-Lover Is Dead, but when the Phoenix quartet played Michael Feldman’s travelling radio show Whad’Ya Know?, a few members of the aging, liberal crowd raised an eyebrow: “Celebrating guns? Are you folks with the NRA?”

Truth be told, the band doesn’t care much about firearms, but they’re certainly into celebrating. Their stellar indie tunes channel that mid-2000s-era bombast, reminiscent of Arcade Fire or The Appleseed Cast.

“This is the closest to capturing our sound that we’ve come to,” vocalist and guitarist Justin Weir says. “We’re pretty happy for the most part. There’s not a lot of dark moments in our music, so celebratory, a lot of explosive moments.”'

“Thank You For Your Time” sputters to life with symmetrical rhythms and choppy, sardonic vocals, briefly dissolving into a whirl of high-pitched grooves. With optimistic glockenspiel and soaring crescendos, “The Volunteer” evokes early Vampire Weekend. But as demonstrated in the song’s music video — featuring a jerk driving around Sunnyslope and Tempe ripping people off — the lyrics are confrontational and not a little bitter. The album’s titular track brings it all back, channeling that emotion inward.

While Weir and bassist Ryan Miller have been buds since high school, the rest of the band — drummer Timothy O’Brien and guitarist Christopher Blanco — met via Craigslist. In fact, Blanco came over for tryouts after the previous guy had offered the band a fistful of pills.

“After he bombed the songs, he was like, ‘Hey, you guys want some benzos?’” Weir recalls, emphasizing the stern “no” he gave. “As he walked out, Chris walked in and played everything perfectly.”

The rest is history. In a few short years, the band has become a tight-knit powerhouse, as well as one of the better-known acts around town. Indeed, Celebration Guns have come a long way since their debut EP, Quitter, which was recorded using GarageBand drum loops. Still, even their earliest recordings hint at the mathematical post-rock influences that still shape Celebration Guns today.

“A big start of this band was me reaching out to Robbie [Pfeffer] from Rubber Brother Records,” Weir explains. “I just randomly went to Cartel to see the Thin Bloods and Numb Bats play a show there — I didn’t know who they were — and they had this whole cassette counter. I thought it was so cool that they had a cassette label.”

Weir soon contacted Rubber Brother, and although their indie roots stood out from the garage rock aesthetic shared by many Rubber Brother bands, Celebration Guns would release often through the label. While bummed that Rubber Brothers stopped being active about a year ago, Weir started his own imprint, Saint Joseph Music & Art Collective. And with plans for their first full-length later in the year, Celebration Guns are losing no momentum.

“We take professionalism seriously as a band … I like the idea of the scene supporting itself,” Weir explains. “It’s important to us to know what other bands are up to, to develop relationships with them and not just show up, do our own thing and ignore everything else that’s going on. [We] actually promote ourselves and reach out and do things instead of sitting around waiting for something to happen.” - Phoenix New Timers

On ‘The Me That Used To Be,’ Celebration Guns come through with a bombastic and melodic brand of guitar pop that is bound to drive you wild. We’re excited to bring y’all a new song from the release called “Ready To Go.” The high energy and bounce of the song are the perfect introduction to what you can expect from Celebration Guns on their new EP. ‘The Me That Used To Be’ is five songs of some of the best indie pop we’re going to hear in 2016. You can pre-order the EP here, and you can listen to “Ready To Go” after the cut - 36 Vultures

Hailing from Phoenix, Arizona, Celebration Guns introduced themselves as an ‘indie/emo/progressive’ band and while it’s true they do dip their toes into each of those genres, we believe they may be underselling themselves a little. Having just released a split EP with fellow Arizonians B.O.T.S (also well worth checking out, they reminded us of Adventures), Celebration Guns have a lot to cheer about right now.

‘Old Habits’ is a song that recalls early Bloc Party mixed with a harsher-sounding Mimas. With a mathy opening, the vocals are not brought in until the halfway point of the song – and it’s here that singer Justin Weir talks about lost youth and how ‘old habits die hard’. There’s also a tribal but charmingly appealing sense of fun running throughout the song. It remains gleeful even while the effects pedals are brought to the fore. ‘Former Lover’ is more in line with the likes of the Appleseed Cast but the complex rhythm is joined by a rather festive glockenspiel effect. With its perfectly set emo lyrics – ‘Remember we both were kids, we played a part in this’ – it’s a song that will appeal to fans of everyone from Doves to The World Is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die. - Spectral Nights

Celebration Guns
Yeah, these guys are definitely Stars fans. - The AV Club

14. Celebration Guns-The Me That Used To Be EP
I think this is the longest I've waited for a five-track EP to be released in my life. The recording for The Me That Used To Be was finished early on in 2015. While "The Volunteer" and the title track had been preview singles that certainly whetted the appetite, it all sounds so much better in the context of the record itself. This EP has been the crux of their live show for nearly two years, so if you've been a fan of that, this is essentially their greatest hits. Complex arrangements, math rock sensibilities, pop aesthetics and indie rock musings is what it's all about. I can't wait to see what Celebration Guns do next, and I hope it arrives a bit quicker. - Phoenix New Times

Celebration Guns - "The Volunteer"
Every time I see Celebration Guns, it seems the standout track is "The Volunteer," the new single from their forthcoming EP, The Me That Used to Be. The intro with the chimes/bells kills me every time. In the years since their formation Timothy O'Brien has become one of my favorite drummers in town, while the quirky vocals of Justin Weir, along with his guitar duel with Chris Blanco and bass thumping by Ryan Miller, just constantly make me think that this is what authentic indie rock sounds like. This recording trumps all their previous efforts and it should leave you eagerly anticipating the release of the EP this Spring - Phoenix New Times

Celebration Guns, "Bright Enough" EP

Their atmospheric brand of neo-psychedelic dream pop should speak to anyone who came of age with Animal Collective, even while blurring the lines between math-rock and jazz in the process in some of the trickier parts of "The Harder I Try." As complicated as the songs' arrangements get, the singing keeps it grounded, whether sighing "The harder I try, then the further you go / The closest I get's when I leave you alone" on that track or giving in to the thought that "complacency will carry it out" on the existential title track. - AZ Central

Celebration Guns was my surprise mind-blowing band of last year that I first went to see on the lark of a recommendation....their first official EP Bright Enough is no slouch. ..."The Harder I Try", a brilliant tune about emotional alienation within a relationship. ..."Say What You Mean" kicks in and you have to wrap your head around it, the intricate percussion and infinite guitar work astounds even more. "If There's Time" is a quintessential track that proves they are not only poets but indie rock maestros -- in the spirit of true indie rock (i.e. Pavement, Sebadoh, etc.)

"Tiny Instruments" confirms the band's genius, as it is a live recording and probably the best documentation of their presence available. This is one of my favorite live tracks and I am so glad they presented it here. This IS Celebration Guns and they are phenomenal." - Java Magazine

Celebration Guns are reissuing the band’s debut EP Quitter via Saint Joseph Records (stream below), a label founded by the band’s own Justin Weir. Originally released back in the summer of 2013, the Phoenix, AZ band are excited to share the recording with the addition of two new bonus tracks pulled for the same sessions. Comprised of home recordings, “Quitter” offers a look into Weir’s songwriting and influences, a charming collection of demos that pull from indie pop, post-hardcore, and elements of quirky progressive-tinged emo. The EP’s reissue marks the beginning of what is to be a very busy year for Celebration Guns as they look forward to the release of their “official” debut EP, The Me That Used To Be, due out May 6th via President Gator Records on 10″ LP and digital. - New Noise Magazine

Quitter is the new EP from Celebration Guns, the band featuring former member of Wizards of Time, Neba and Tiger Heist. The 5 demo tracks written over the past couple years prove that these guys have been pretty busy. “Hold still” is a noisy, guitar-driven tune that is just darn fun. The guitar hook, something that these cats are known for, is front and center. Justin Weir, vocalist/guitarist, introduces himself through a distorted vocal filter that he uses throughout the EP. It’s dirty and gritty and is a great counterpoint to the clean riffs and open drums. It’s on “Go to sleep” where you hear every one of these musicians come together to create a sound that is unique to them. The quirky lead guitar riff is, well, quirky at the onset of the tune, but once the band gets into the main part of the song it fits very nicely. “Ride home” and “The wait is over” follow suit: Interesting leads, distorted vocals and what I thought were really terrific melodies. Drummer Timothy O’Brien bassist Ryan Miller, and guitarist Chris Blanco, along with Weir, have carved out a rad EP everyone should check out. - Yab Yum Music & Arts

20. Celebration Guns – “The Volunteer”

The second track offered up from Celebration Guns on their split release with Twin Ponies is the amazing “The Volunteer” which has been one of my live favorites for months now, if for no other reason than the delicate bell intro by Timothy O’Brien. Somewhere there is an amazing live recording of this performed perfectly at a Last Exit Live gig that I was thrilled to witness in person. Since that time I have been eagerly anticipating its release and when O’Brien told me that it would be the second song on this release I couldn’t have been more pleased. I honestly think it’s their most accomplished tune to date, at least in consideration of what they’ve recorded so far. Brilliant. - Sounds Around Town

...Charles Barth of Saddles had turned me on to Celebration Guns earlier in the week and my ears and attention were promised to the Rogue. It was a wise decision (though I’m sure the other show was great too) because the Twin Ponies EP release party for Pores was hands down the best show of the weekend. Celebration Guns made their live debut and holy hell what a debut it was! They are now officially my favorite new band in town with their clever combination of feedback washed, air infused shoegazing indie pop filled with flawless hooks and enough rock nerve to get you moving. I’m not sure I’ve ever been more impressed with a band during their first performance, these guys just totally nailed it right out of the starting gate–fucking amazing. Seriously, keep your eyes on these guys! - Sounds Around Town

Phoenix’s Celebration Guns are preparing to release their new EP The Me That Used To Be on April 8th. Surviving the Golden Age is excited to give you an exclusive first listen. From the glockenspiel-filled notes of the opening track “The Volunteer,” you know you’re in for a fun ride. Mixing math rock, indie pop, and twee, Celebration Guns sounds like a hybrid between Los Campesinos! and the Lovely Feathers. It’s hard to listen to the five song EP and not smile. - Surviving the Golden Age

Celebration Guns, circa 2013, was little more than an unfledged band. Back then, the four-piece group dreamed of headlining Crescent Ballroom but were still leaning on GarageBand demos and past memberships in relatively successful bands to gain credibility in booking shows, while still receiving condescending or nonexistent responses.

While their early accomplishments were significant milestones for a new local band — lo-fi Rubber Brother Records EP “Quitter,” a couple splits and an EP that the band considers to be disastrous, “Bright Enough” — they didn’t showcase Celebration Guns to its maximum potential.

“We made some CDs of it and those are all gone now, so we’re happy moving on, forgetting that,” vocalist and guitarist Justin Weir said jokingly about “Bright Enough.”

What Celebration Guns is moving on to is a new EP, titled “The Me That Used To Be.” After two and a half years, the band will finally be complementing its high-quality live performances with a satisfying album — one that Weir calls their first real recording — in which close attention to detail in production pays off and delivers a balanced, polished product.

“People are able to hear what they experience with us live recorded with this new EP,” Weir said. “I can almost guarantee that nobody else has ever felt that way about anything else we’ve recorded, so I think this is really important for us to step up our game and put out something that’s a little more professional-sounding and show what we have to offer.”

The five-track album begins with four snarky tracks, effectively satirizing annoying customers, close-minded people and the flakes of their most successful single off the album, “The Volunteer.”

While creating a satirical song majority for the album was unintentional, the title track — “The Me That Used To Be” — creates a theme of nostalgia and playfulness for the album, bringing lyrics about connecting to one’s younger self and inspiring artwork that includes awkward childhood pictures. While Weir said he typically focuses on the music first, he said this track was more reflective and personal, which will allow fans to connect to its lyrics without losing the band’s signature noise.

“It’s a little bit more mature-sounding,” Weir said. “The lyrics are a lot better than what I usually come up with. I actually connected with it. When I’m writing songs, I’m usually thinking of other bands I listen to that write similar, snarky lyrics, but in this I totally came up with my own theme for it, so it’s more personal to me. It’s a different, but good, side of us that people might not be familiar with.”

The band’s development and escalating success is also evident when looking at its history of live performances. The regularity and size of their bookings has increased including a place on the Viva PHX 2016 lineup, alongside the likes of Crystal Castles and The Growlers.

On April 8, Celebration Guns can add a weekend EP release show at the Crescent Ballroom to their growingly impressive resume. There, the band will perform all five tracks off “The Me That Used To Be,” after performances by Twin Ponies, Sundressed and Flower Festival.

“We’ve spent a lot of time just playing any show we can get — weeknight shows and really small shows — just so we can get our name out there and have people see us,” said Ryan Miller, the band’s bassist. “To be in a position where we can have shows at Crescent and put out a record there, that just shows the contrast of where we were at within the scene within a year, maybe a year and a half, that we started versus today. It’s a pretty noticeable change.”

Following the big release show, the band’s calendar is not dying down. Appearances at ASU are scheduled to precede a small tour, which will include major city stops along the west coast. In addition, Celebration Guns will be busy working on its first LP for release in 2017.

These accumulating achievements are direct results of hard work. Weir said the DIY-style band personally prints flyers and posts them throughout the city. They put a strong effort into bringing people to shows. Their frequent outreach has built the needed fan base to create a self-sustaining band — a band with enough support to produce a new high-quality EP to attract new listeners to shows.

As the maturity of the band grows, expanding opportunities, Celebration Guns is determined to extend its longevity by continuously developing in quality, while maintaining the unique, signature sounds at its core. Even with a single listen to the album, “The Me That Used To Be” is a clear testament to the band’s efforts.

“It’s hard to find something that’s different, but still recognizable enough to say, ‘I really like that,’” Miller said. “I think we have some of that in there. Most of the time, when people give us a chance, if you like the genre, then you’ll probably like something about it. It has that wide berth to what tastes it satisfies.” - Downtown Devil

t’s hard to believe that, aside from some split releases and a couple singles, it’s been just shy of two years since Celebration Guns has had an EP all their own. I’ve been living with a demo of The Me That Used To Be for over a year, eagerly anticipating its release. This month everyone will be able to enjoy this five-track gem. The EP kicks off with “The Volunteer,” which is often their live-set closer and easily their best song. From the sheer rush of the sound, to the catchy hooks and stunning percussion work, it succeeds on many levels. It was the first single released for the record, and with good reason.

“Thank You For Your Time” explores complex arrangements and peculiar time signatures, with a math-rock sensibility inside a perfect pop song. It’s a difficult trick to pull off, but Celebration Guns makes it look easy. While “Ready to Go” is more traditional indie-rock, it’s no less powerful, and its furious pace makes it a fun ride, especially during the dizzying breaks. This is easily the next single.

“Have It Your Way” is a hip-swinging, head-shaking good time, with no lack of wry cynicism in the lyrics. The rowdy crowd sing-along with the marching band snare at the end is one of this record’s finest moments to be sure. The title track brings the EP to a close with a hypnotic number that is dreamy shoegaze rock reminiscent of their sound when they started in 2013. The only way Celebration Guns could top this is with a full-length album that maintains this kind of strength from beginning to end. The Me That Used To Be will be released by President Gator Records on Friday, April 8, at Crescent Ballroom with Twin Ponies, Sundressed and Flower Festival. - JAVA Magazine

was feeling oddly nostalgic on the day Celebration Guns sent over this video to see about premiering it on the website, and something about the old home video footage worked so well with the music that it won me over almost instantly. The track, “The Me That Used to Be” comes from the band’s recently released EP of the same name. Frontman, Justin Weir, described the video premise:

The video features footage of me as a super hyperactive kid and while the lyrics have a general theme of reconnecting with youth and the associated beliefs and ideals that came with it, the video features the guys in the band reconnecting with the spirit of youth at an arcade, minigolf, and laser tag. Kind of a more personal look at Celebration Guns that hopefully brings about a nostalgic feeling overall. - Chorus FM

11. Celebration Guns "Pangaea"

Jordan Murawa directed the video for "Pangaea," the closing track from a forthcoming album called "(Probably) Worth it," recorded by Alan Leggett.

It's a richly textured tapestry of interweaving guitar lines, at times suggested Television raised on math-rock with an urgent lead vocal about how "life seems to take the good friends I find."

Singer-guitarist Justin Weir says, "Our guitarist Christopher Blanco started sending me these finger-tapping guitar lines starting last year (we’ve been playing since 2013) and then I would arrange them into a song structure, which changed the direction stylistically of half of our upcoming album."

This is the fifth of 10 videos they plan on making for the album, one for each song. And Weir says it's "the first that we had zero creative input on."

Murawa "considers it somewhat of a nod to or a wink at the John Moreland video for 'Cherokee,'" Weir says, "where the guy spends the entire video woodworking in slow motion." - AZ Central

Finally it was the guys with the brand new album, Celebration Guns. First, let me say the album is excellent. I love the music they produce. It is atmospheric with this fantastic guitar melody through most of it. This is from the get go on the first track “(Probably) Worth It” to the end on “Pangaea.”

Furthering the atmospheric sounds they incorporate an expanded mix of instruments throughout, from a mandolin to melodica. The overall sound I group into the indie rock and alternative genres, although you can hear influences from punk to jazz in the tracks. A couple favorites off of it are “(Probably) Worth It,” “Move On,” and “Great Again.”

The set lived up to the quality of the album. Celebration Guns may have had the most enthusiastic members of the crowd. There were certainly a few that were dancing up a storm closest to the stage. For this set, they brought forth a fifth member on bells and horn. The set was the full album and their catalog of music. It was a release I was not going to miss, Celebration Guns delivered on an excellent night of music. - Every Show Joe

I attended the first Celebration Guns show at Rogue Bar in 2013, and it was clear almost from note #1 that this was a band to take seriously. Their songs were Pinback plus Minus The Bear, although less singsong than the former and less icy than the latter, presented live with relatively spare but carefully orchestrated arrangements. Their instrumental chops were impeccable, and while they didn't appear to be having too great a time up there, no head in the place failed to bob along.

The next few years saw them steadily gaining confidence and popularity, culminating in a highly successful release party for their EP The Me That Used to Be in 2016. Ask a sample group of Arizona musicians if they've ever gotten that close to selling out Crescent Ballroom; you'll get maybe five yeses, and two will be lies. Nonetheless, the band had a rough time the rest of that year, first losing money on their tour promoting the EP, and then dealing with the departure of longtime drummer Tim O'Brien. The search for a new drummer coincided with a change in musical direction, incorporating guitarist Chris Blanco's fondness for tapping riffs and ultimately leading to the vibrant blend of indie pop and math rock that is the group's first full-length album, (Probably) Worth It.

The album's first two tracks, “(Probably)” and “Worth It,” are two halves of a single song that frontman Justin Weir says he wrote after they closed the books on the aforementioned tour. “It was a lot of fun,” he adds, “but most people in a band probably wonder how worth it being a band is or how much they're willing to sacrifice for a potentially disappointing outcome.” At 36, Weir has been in bands for most of his life and knows of what he speaks, but while his experience has brought him clarity about the enterprise's (rather massive) difficulties, it's also bequeathed him the skills – as a songwriter, an instrumentalist, a curator of ideas – to lead a band that is more worth hearing now than ever.

(Probably) Worth It is lively, intricate, relentlessly intelligent. The glistening guitar duets and ever-shifting rhythms are brain candy for the kind of person who likes a good Rubik's cube. Indeed the album's main flaw, if “flaw” is the right word, is that the density of ideas makes it largely opaque on first listen. It has just enough straightforward pop moments to make you want to hear it again, but from there it sinks its hooks in steadily deeper. “Consider The Source,” with its conventional verse-chorus structure and Rapture-indebted grooves, is instantly appealing, but not any more a great song than, say, “Where You've Gone” with its complicated but beautiful vocal melody, or “Worth It,” where a bittersweet chord progression nicely underpins the Maps and Atlases-like lead guitar figures.

“Great Again” is similar to “Consider The Source” both in the political bent of the lyrics and the memorability of the chorus, which employs a strange thing known as “overdrive” on a record dominated by clean guitar sounds. There's a particular good one of these on the intro of “Great Again”: the deftly played, palm-muted part echoes Talking Heads at their sunniest. It's paired with a xylophone-like sound which Weir says was actually a kind of pipe bell: “I found them at Bookman's,” he explains, “and it only had a price tag on it, no brand name, it seems to be homemade. The entire song was written around that initial bell part.” Recording the bells cleanly proved so difficult that Weir, frustrated, shook them off their mounts while the tape was rolling; the band ended up keeping it. “[It] was extremely cathartic,” Weir says, “and seemed very fitting based on the content of the song.”

Insofar as a great batch of songs doesn't always equal a great record, details like this can put you over the top, and the guys of Celebration Guns seem well aware of it. They know when to embrace happy accidents, but Weir also put in a great deal of time perfecting the finishing touches with engineer/producer Alan Leggett, an instructor at Tempe's Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences. “He was willing to spend HOURS with me obsessively mixing the songs, fine-tuning effects and little details,” Weir recalls. “It made a huge difference in the final product.”

Just how big a difference is evident on tracks like “The Harder I Try,” whose woozy intro builds to a danceable main section in which the drums sound oddly soft yet entirely propulsive. It's also one of many standout performances by drummer PJ Coleman; his grasp of unconventional rhythms and shifting time-signatures is first-rate, and he can sound sparse and relaxed as easily as he sounds muscular and progressive. “Move On” features him doing both in close succession, while Weir accompanies with vigorous mandolin-playing and a hint of folk melodicism in his voice.

On the subject of voices, it's worth noting that Weir's vocals are strong throughout, yet deliberately unflashy. They're nicely layered, with one or more harmony parts for nearly every melody. They're also mixed relatively low, making them less a lead part than an ingredient in the tracks' overall texture. But this doesn't stop them from doing remarkable things, most notably on album closer “Pangaea.” A hyper-melodic take on post-hardcore, the song shifts between dissimilar sections in a way that feels somehow the opposite of jarring, and the first of these transitions coincides with the end of the lines “I guess I never deserved you / it doesn't matter now, you're not here anymore” in a moment I can only describe as unreasonably gorgeous. You have to be careful with a song title like “Pangaea;” it's such a perfect metaphor for sincerely missing the past, the song itself may have trouble measuring up. This one doesn't. It aches with nostalgia while keeping the energy level high, and again the divergent elements work perfectly together. The album closes, fittingly, with a reflection on the journey that led to it. - Arena Music

11
Celebration Guns
“The Volunteer”

The effervescent indie pop of Celebration Guns really comes through in high shine on their 2016 single, “The Volunteer”. This tracks comes to us from the me that used to be, the band’s April release. The orchestral layers of instrumentation distract the listener from the gravity of the lyrical content. It might take a few listens for the meaning to sink in after the dancing subsides. - YabYum

Celebration Guns – “(Probably) Worth It”

Celebration Guns are a musicians band and it seems that it’s musicians and maybe people who write about music all damn day that are their most ardent fans. “(Probably) Worth It” is their first new song in a year and it seems long overdue, but they have been vetting a new drummer in their lineup. This crew is a perfectionist lot, so I’ve learned to be patient, but hopeful. The song itself is about playing in a band, which makes the hesitant title of the tune all the more amusing. This is the first tune to see the light of day from their forthcoming full album release later this year. I’ve wanted a full album from these guys since the start, because their music is aligned with my nervous system in such a way that I want to lose myself into a forty to fifty minute headphone experience with them at the reins. Check out the video and dig on the song. - Sounds Around Town

Pheonix, AZ indie quartet Celebration Guns has debuted the video of “You Aren’t the Only One”, a third song taken from their upcoming debut album (Probably) Worth it, due out this spring. The video was filmed during a house party by We Fixed Up Grandma’s Bike and written, directed and edited by Justin Jimmie. You can watch the video below.

Celebration Guns last released “the me that used to be” in 2015 via President Gator Recor - Punkanormal Activity

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not always drawn to the type of emotive, alt-pop music played by bands like Celebration Guns.

Too often I find that, while the technicality of the music and band may be stunning, requiring incredible talent and precision from the musicians playing it, it ends up lacking the one thing I look for in music the most: soul.

However, we at YabYum have always had a soft spot for the Guns. Of course we heard and loved their debut EP, Quitter, back in Rubber Brother’s heyday of 2013. We also suggested hearing and aquiring The Me That Used to Be when it dropped in 2016. And I’m here to tell you that (Probably) Worth It is definitely worth it.

The album opens with the instrumental intro “(Probably)” before jettisoning into the second track, “Worth It”. Essentially two parts of the same song, “(Probably) Worth It” conveys right away what you can expect from the entire album: indie ambient fusion mixed with frantic noise-pop. Lead vocalist and guitarist Justin Weir belts an impressive, thought-provoking chorus: “And I think it doesn’t get better than this/ And I hope I never take it for granted/ When one day what we have comes to an end/ Will it feel like we gave it all that we had?”

The rumblin’ rhythm section of Ryan Miller on bass and Peter Coleman on drums bring to life the third track, “Where You’ve Gone”, before Christopher Blanco on lead guitar and Justin on second lead guitar fill in some some righteous melodies. A highlight of Celebration Guns is that both guitarists perform some awesome tap-work and melodic breakdowns both simultaneously and apart from one another and it makes for a truly dazzling effect. They are often spaced apart from each other, playing in the relative major or minor of the song and widen the scope of the audial landscape immensely.

In fact, the recording quality found on (Probably) Worth It is stellar and I can’t compliment Alan Leggett enough. The mixing and production are pro and it’s little wonder he instructs at the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences. However, while all the instruments and sounds of this album are right where you want them to be, be careful listening to this album with only one earbud in at work or if you’re sharing earbuds with a classmate across desks: the guitars are panned pretty hard left and right from each other and you’re likely only hearing one side of the composition!

Things change up into more post-punk territory on “You Aren’t the Only One” and I like it. Although it might be more accurate to describe Celebration Guns’ sound with bands like Tera Melos or even Razing Alexandria, I get a toned down Propagandhi vibe on this and other songs, especially during the lines: “You aren’t the only one/ I’ve ever welcomed through/ To take a part of me/ And turn and leave.” One could go as far to say that they sometimes sound like a much less aggressive Fall of Troy but perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.

“Move On” moves into more major key territory after mostly minor songs preceding it and this is a welcome change of pace, as is Justin’s mandolin keeping up with Christopher’s riffing on guitar. The gang vocals on this track are a nice touch as well.

However, my favorite track off of (Probably) Worth It has to be “A Window”. Orchestral guitar parts + wicked rhythm and time signature = success. The lyrics hit home with me as well: “A window is all we get/ But we just don’t see it yet.”

As the album continues, my biggest negative critique of (Probably) Worth It is one that we at YabYum have made before about Celebration Guns music: a lack of diverging sounds that tends to lead many of the songs blending together in memory. While certainly the entire album isn’t this way, as I dip into the second half of (Probably) Worth It, I just find it less compelling than the first.

The drumbeat and bass line throughout “Consider the Source” certainly grab my attention though. As with the next rack, “Great Again”, I enjoy the themes of these songs immensely and am glad to see Justin and the band move into more societal/political territories with this release. Peter’s xylophone really is fun too.

The album finales with “Pangaea”, featuring a leaving partner and whimsical, staccato string parts. It definitely ends with me wanting more and that’s always a good thing in my book. - YabYum