Don't you(,) mean people?

8/10

Every now and then, you come across a band that blends two styles of music so effortlessly that you wonder why there isn’t a whole genre dedicated to it. Don’t You(,) Mean People?’s newest effort, Who Cares, seems to have done that rather brilliantly with an odd combination of post-rock, and math-rock.

Being a huge fan of post-rock, I was excited to see what this Thunder Bay, Ontario band could bring to the table. I was even more excited to discover how they could incorporate Math-Rock into the mix, a genre that, despite being familiar with, I haven’t been properly exposed to. For those unfamiliar: to my knowledge, Math-Rock is a mostly instrumental type of music that incorporates many tempo changes, as well as some odd, and complex time signatures that sometimes change throughout the course of a single song. In this instance, Who Cares has a certain jazzy, yet ambient style to it, utilising only three main instruments: guitar, bass, and drums. All of which are recorded so cleanly, there doesn’t seem to be a single effect heard. Every song on this record stands out in some way, shape, or form. It’s hard to narrow down what makes this album so special, but some standout moments can be found in the songs “Sugar And Other Everyday Diamonds,” “Predecessor Predecessor,” and “Silver Daze.”

“Sugar And Other Everyday Diamonds” is one of their faster songs. With some acoustic guitars layered under the lead, the chords being played are truly emphasised. The song as a whole properly showcases the drummer’s talent, as well as how tight the band truly is; effortlessly transitioning from a 4/4 time signature to a 6/8 time over and over again, and later to a slow buildup in a much more complex timing. The highlight of the album, however, is the final track. “Silver Daze” is such a treat to the ears, perfectly captivating a rhythmically complex, yet relaxing, ambient, post-rock feel. The last half of the song is where it shines emotionally. A slower tempo, and the incorporation of some other instruments (namely a piano, some strings, and a trumpet), the whole thing builds up to an emotionally and sonically beautiful crescendo. Definitely a solid way to end such a memorable album.

I did have a couple minor issues with this album, however. The main one being that the instruments played were almost too stripped down. I appreciated the nice, clean tone, but there were times where they could have used some push. A good example of this could be heard in the track “Go On.” It starts out with a smooth bass line that has a bit of an indie-rock sound to it, but as soon as the guitar came in, I honestly mistook it for a MIDI signal. I applaud this band for creating a post-rock vibe without the use of effects or synth, but the guitar could have used a little more drive in a few of their songs.

Regardless, as a drummer, it was so much fun for me to count out the odd time signatures that Don’t You(,) Mean People? used throughout this album, and, although they occurred often, they never got tiring, nor predictable. Who Cares is one of the most interestingly beautiful albums I’ve heard in a while. It is the kind of album you can either put on as background music as you’re trying to work, or devote all your attention to,and really appreciate the complexity and emotion that these three musicians created. I look forward to hearing more from them in the future.

-Mathieu Perrier - Bucketlist Media

Canadian rhetorical questioners Don’t You(,) Mean People? have released their first full length album ‘Who Cares?’, a record that explores math-rock whilst fusing it with a rather eclectic mix of varied genres. The trio, who are based in Thunder Bay, Ontario, have been around since 2011 and ‘Who Cares?’ will be their third release in that time after the award winning six-track record ‘EP!!’ was released in 2013 and a teaser demo ‘Comfy Onion’ in 2014.

Although inspired by popular bands of post-rock and math-rock, adopting techniques that would often be associated with such genres, Don’t You(,) Mean People? take a ‘raw acoustic’ route when they’re producing their music and perform without any distortion or special effects, something that is almost a staple to bands associated with such genres. When these experimentations come together, the combination of generally far off genres alongside a raw and stripped down sound then something very intriguing comes out of it.

The album starts out in a snappy and energetic manner with the short introduction track ‘Overture’. It’s an opening track that shows, when it comes to technical math-rock these guys do know what they’re doing. Frantic and intense, it is a good open to the album and sets everything off on in an eager and vigorous direction.

The second track, ‘Sugar and Other Everyday Diamonds’, is another song that works primarily down the math-rock route, again showcasing the abilities of the band. It also demonstrates the ‘raw acoustic’ sound that the trio have aimed to achieve, and it is interesting to hear this in action as it leads to a much more laidback feel in a genre that can feel almost overwhelmingly intense at times. Since there is no external additions to the bands sound, the guitars and drums can take priority as the major focus of sound, this leads to songs that have a strong interplay and heavy groove between each of the members as the instruments work with each other more openly and have less to get lost in. The song has a lovely breakdown in the middle section before it builds back up into a funky and speedy segment to finish off.

‘Cherry Wine’ comes up next and this is where the album starts to move into a different territory as the experimentation with genres becomes blatantly apparent. ‘Cherry Wine’ is a song that keeps up the math-rock rhythm, the drums maintain a syncopated beat and the song itself has quite a stop start nature, breaking down completely a couple of times before coming back to life. The guitar and bass work however is like dancing round the campfire as the sun sets in the forest. It is as closely related to the sound of Dave Matthews Band as it is to that of Slint. ‘Cherry Wine’ presents to us a combination of genres, folk, country and math-rock, and it’s a combination that I never would have really expected to work, but somehow the song sounds right and gets on well with it.

A few tracks down the line ‘End, Pt. 1’ gives a different example of fusion, this time presenting a (potentially) more obvious mix of genres, bringing a jazzy kick to the album. Deep drums thump away to start off the song before being joined by piano and the guitars that all twiddle about in their own time throughout the song. It’s a moody and doomy song that works the genres nicely.

As we move to the back end of the album things start to slide back into the math-rock style a little more with longer songs that stop and start, changing up their pace and melody frequently. ‘Predecessor Predecessor’ and penultimate track ‘The Big Bubble and My Bendy Bones’ are both songs that move, chop and fidget throughout. Laid back, relaxing and smooth at times, and intense and full on at others, they’re the type of song that never give up, just as you think they’re over everything kicks back in again for one more go around.

The final song ‘Silver Daze’ is an interesting one, closing out the album with style. It switches up the rhythm, melodies and motifs a number of times, like a tester of sounds and ideas that fit together by their edges. There is also an introduction of some more instrumentation as violin, trumpet and piano come in to play along on the song. With the build throughout the song, the mellow and drawn out sounds that these new instruments bring sit wonderfully on top of the base that builds up.

‘Who Cares?’ is an album where everything is free to explore and free to go where it goes, with the main noticeable theme of the album being experimentation, be this through experimenting with different genres and slotting them together or by playing a stripped back variation on math-rock bare of pedals and effects; on top of this it must be remembered that a majority of the album consists of only three instrumentalists. You could forgive someone for being a little worried at the start of the album and the potential train wreck that they are embarking upon, but fortunately for us and for the lads of the band, everything works very well together and the experiment pays off.

It actually turns out to be a light and uplifting listen, something that I hadn’t really expected with the title ‘Who Cares?’. Math-rock is a genre that can turn into a very dark and difficult one to listen to at times, but with the fusion of the other genres, jazz, country, folk and funk for example that we find throughout the album, it is always lifted up and it all turns into a lot of fun and is very friendly. I’d like to hope that the closing track of the album is a sign of things for the future of the band and is the start of them branching out and experimenting with a little more instrumentation, but as it stands Don’t You(,) Mean People? have released a very intriguing and compelling album that should sit nicely amongst your record collection, provided your record collection isn’t arranged by genre.

-Richard Anderson - Arctic Drones

(from page 60)
Who cares about an album debut by local band Don't You(,) Mean People? Well we all should really(!) While the genre they inhabit is usually squirrelled away by musical academics and aficionados, DYMP has found a way to make this technical sounding music more accessible. They describe themselves as "dynamic and expressive acoustic rock which is two parts math-rock and one part post-rock," and it couldn't be explained any better. The same cannot be said about the strange grammar within their name; this is, however, a story for another day. Who cares? is a great album for putting on as background music as well as kicking back and drinking it in. An entirely instrumental album may scare some listeners at first; but some tracks that will definitely open you up are "Predecessor predecessor," "End part 1," and "Cherry wine." Who cares? is a well-crafted, well-performed, and well-produced album in a genre well outside the box for your typical Thunder Bay band.

-Jamie Varga
4/5 - Walleye

By: Jenna Melanson June 16th 2015

I had the chance to catch up with Thunder Bay, ON based band, Don’t You(,) Mean People and ask them a few questions surrounding their background, new music and lots more. From June 1-July 31 they have a pre-order/crowdfunding campaign going on, which the first single being released on July 9!

You’ve been around the music scene for a few years now, how did you meet and form the band?

All three of us went to the same schools while growing up in Thunder Bay, but we weren’t close friends at that time. There was even a bully-bullied relationship between Alex and Mack for a while during that time in our lives. Taylor (guitar) and Alex (drums) played together in a metal band and both of us had some experience playing in groups in town. When the metal scene started to fizzle out in Tbay I (Taylor) started really getting into post-rock and I wanted to contribute something which I wanted to hear but couldn’t find anywhere: acoustic post-rock. The songs I wrote following the acoustic-instrumental-post-rock philosophy I was trying to develop ended up being the foundation of DYMP. The three of us had been slowly drifting together and becoming friends around that time and we were bonding over math-rock and post-rock bands. So together we learned the songs I (Taylor) had been writing on my own and then we started collaborating together to develop our own sound and style.

How did you choose the band name?

Taylor was studying poetry and sociology at the time of our inception. One day in class he wrote a couplet poem which read:

Don’t you(,) mean people?
Who cares?

The poem is supposed to be aphoristic (meaning there’s no clear meaning) and in certain ways it points to the ambiguity of language and the ways everyday language still communicates something while failing to fall within the constraints of proper grammar. This sort of idea resonated with the band since they are instrumental and two people can have completely different ideas of what an instrumental song means to them, even one person can have multiple interpretations of an instrumental song over time.

You released a six track album entitled EP!! in January 2013, which won best Thunder Bay album of 2013, how did that feel?

It was very inspiring to get recognition for our artistic work in a city which had little to no post-rock scene at the time of our formation in 2011. We should mention that Thunder Bay has actually witnessed a small explosion of post-rock groups since that time too, so that is also very inspiring. It’s nice to feel like we are part of a place that appreciates, supports, and develops the type of art that really resonates with us.

More recently (April 2014) you released a demo called “Comfy Onion”, that’s an odd name, how did you come up with it?

We love to play with words, and making funny sounding combinations of words is a serious semi-pastime of ours. Comfy onion started out as a joke and evolved into a concept about a pampered onion which breaks out on its own to take on the real world.

Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?

We try to pull inspiration from emotional experiences, encounters with nature (once you see our album cover you will be able to see how much NW Ontario landscapes figure into how we picture our music), and personal relationships. Our band’s group dynamic also has a strong effect on how our music sounds. Recently we’ve been imagining our songs as a person with a particular personality and trying to expand the song reflecting on the sonic character we created.

You released a video teasing your first full-length record, “Who Cares?” which is set to be released this fall, has your sound changed since your previous releases?

To a degree. Our philosophy to create instrumental music with entirely organic sounds has not changed. We have developed as people and as musicians since our previous releases, and the songs seem to be more mature and well-rounded. We’ve also added some theatrical aspects to this album which is a first for us.

You have begun an indiegogo fundraiser campaign which will run from June 1-July 30, can you tell us more about this?

We are currently producing the physical copies of our record. We are putting out the music on vinyl and flash drive. The indiegogo campaign is a crowdfunding effort to help us cover the costs of the physical production of the record. We are also offering some things above and beyond the actual albums though, such as playthrough video requests and private performances around Canada.

The release of your album will be followed by a cross Canada tour, what can fans expect from a live show?

You can expect to hear acoustic instruments in a more energetic way than you have ever heard before. DYMP is comparable to a high-energy rock band even without distortion or special effects. We are planning on bringing some theatrical aspects of the album on tour with us, such as set design and soundscaping, to add an extra component to our live music performance.

Will the tour include the Maritimes?

We would love to play in the Maritimes but unfortunately we are only going as far East as Montreal.

However, there is a perk on our indiegogo page where someone can get us out to any Canadian province! So Maritimers can demand that we come to them if they so decide.

Canadian Beats is all about Canadian music, who are your current favourite Canadian bands/ artists?

Some of our favorite Canadian bands are: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Do Make Say Think, BADBADNOTGOOD, and Snarky Puppy. GY!BE and DMST really contribute something unique to the international post-rock scene and they were a really big inspiration in developing our musical philosophy and starting up DYMP. BBNG is a very inspiring group to us because of how far they have come and how young they are, DYMP is pretty much the same age as they are. As a side note, it’s pretty interesting that many instrumental bands have 4 words in their band name; we didn’t actually plan our band name to fit in that way, though. Finally, Snarky Puppy has achieved a level of musicianship we are going to aspire to reach for the rest of our lives.

We always like to include a portion of questions that may help your fans learn something new about you, so here goes:

What was the last concert you attended as a fan?

Taylor – Explosions in the Sky
Mack – Kaiser Chiefs
Alex – Snarky Puppy

If you were able to go out on tour with any other Canadian bands, which would you choose?

BADBADNOTGOOD, Suuns, The Bulletproof Tiger, Jung People, Do Make Say Think, Wintersleep

What is your favourite warm weather activity?

Busking, swimming in rivers, longboarding, taking hikes up mountains, petting dogs, chasing goats.

What is your all-time favourite video game?

We are pretty partial to Nintendo video games.

Taylor – Super Mario World
Mack – Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Alex – Donkey Kong Country

If you were able to write a song for any existing television show, which would you choose?

We don’t watch enough TV to give an appropriate answer to this question.

What is your current go-to song?

Taylor – Michael, Michael, Michael – Don Ross
Mack – Spiritual Groove – Antoine Dufour
Alex – Shofukan – Snarky Puppy

Is there anything you’d like to say to your fans?

Our first single “Predecessor predecessor” comes out July 9th, our second single “Sugar and fother everyday diamonds” comes out August 20th. The full-length studio album is being released in September. - Canadian Beats

By Jonathan Ben-Menachem - July 10 2015

Don’t You(,) Mean People? is an instrumental math rock band from Thunder Bay, Ontario. “Predecessor Predecessor” is a single from their first studio full-length Who Cares?, which you can contribute to on indiegogo.

This song probably isn’t the ‘mathiest’ in the DY(,)MP sonic inventory, but its polished clean tones and tight jams definitely make a strong impression on the listener. It begins with some jaunty full-band hits with some nice string pads in the background which I wish stuck around for longer. Most of the track is devoted to this sort of downtempo-yet-bouncy jam, and around the 4 minute mark there’s a pretty entertaining broken-glass sound which cues a more intense jam for around the last minute or so. On the whole, I’m strongly reminded of a band from my high school town, Vasudeva, so this song fills me with pleasant nostalgia. It also ends with a vibraslap hit, which is fantastic.

You can hear more from Don’t You(,) Mean People? on their bandcamp and keep up with them on social media. Also, here’s some dude with an accent explaining what a vibraslap is. - No Smoking Media