Our Great Golden Man

Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, Our Great Golden Man revels in noisy self-expression. What sets them apart is the element of surprise and seeming chaos they inject into their Salem, Oregon thrash. Guitar timbres tumble from clean to distorted, and when you expect growling or screaming from the vocal department, you get semi-shouted singing that actually has melodic shape. it's a nice distinction.
The band have been friends since high school, and three of the members are currently enrolled in college. They want to make a living doing this, so lets give them a hand.
Their sound is highly diverse, while at the same time encompassing all the prevailing trends at work in the sounds of good bands, namely, high rhythmic diversity relating to phrase structure, changing guitar tone coloration and a sprawling-yet-tight sense of organization in relation to the form. They have a very confident sense of ensemble, which shows through in the execution of all the myriad transitions, time, and feel changes these guys pack into a small space. Everything is tied together by a highly imaginative approach to songwriting, which seems to be the key to pulling it all off.
The band formed in 2008, two of the members having played together in a previous band. Knowing one another as friends has probably been key in terms of their rapid growth, as the songs they have released so far are tightly constructed. This would probably translate even better live, as I could easily see myself slam-dancing to this at a show.
In their friends I see the Locust listed, and I can definitely hear elements of that type of thinking at work in Our Great Golden Man's writing. This band seems to prefer a more relaxed pace however, as the oppressive tempos are largely absent here, and the fracturing is, as stated before, achieved as much by timbral (clean-to-distorted) changes as by rhythm. One thing that is interesting about the rhythmic approach is the way they change accompaniment styles seemingly with each new phrase.
Musically, this translates into a style of expressiveness that ties the music to the words in a highly emotional unity. You have to hear it to truly understand. As the singer delivers his lyrics, the band seems to comment on and draw out the feelings expressed by actualizing the sentiment in the music. The songs seethe and recoil, shimmering with life. The result is similiar to the songs of the nineteenth century composer Hugo Wolf. His accompaniments were so richly imbued with the internal life of the texts that you don't need the libretto to get the gist of the lyrical intent. That's the kind of thing at work here. The band has plans to expand their touring/fanbase area, but don't expect them out here on the East Coast any time soon, as they need to become more exposed in the area near the Pacific Ocean. As tight and inventive as they are, I see a bright future for them, and think that people, given exposure to their sound, will be won over.
Check 'em out at www.myspace.com/ourgreatgoldenman