Self-released – 07 Jan 2022
Heavy musicianship on display (FFO: American Football, Motion City Soundtrack, jazzy emo)
I stumbled upon stop.drop.rewind in the most 2022 of ways—the band released a short video on Instagram writing a midwest emo song in five minutes. Via finger tapping riffs and lord of the toms drumming, the band wrote a song that Tiny Moving Parts only wishes they could. As a kudos to the lads, I decided to review their last EP, Heavy Love.
stop.drop.rewind hails from Valpraiso, IN. Having formed in 2012, they’ve released four EPs and one LP in the intervening decade. They’ve also released a bevy of singles, including a tongue-in-cheek anthem for the U.S. Space Force.
However, stop.drop.rewind identifies as a progressive rock band. Hopping onto this conveniently located soapbox, your reviewer detests prog because it’s the hard bop of rock and roll, full of musicians who play music that’s more interesting to them than the listener. Fans tout their favorite bands as better musicians than songwriters, often pointing to an album’s “concept” as proof of prowess.
However, s.d.r. don’t sound like Dream Theater, Yes or even the occasionally tolerable Rush1. They know how to play their instruments and enjoy the occasional odd time signature, but they know how to write a song. Their solos are tight and tasteful, and their riffs are angular but hummable. There is fairly little meat on the bones of songs, and the “prog” seems apt because they’re pushing emo into a new realm.
“Air Quotes” starts with soaring, dual tracked guitars before launching into a relatively restrained verse. Lead singer Kris Lohn alternates between sung vocals and an impassioned howl a la early Get Up Kids. All this is the set up for a catchy earworm of a chorus you’ll find yourself humming randomly while you’re doing the dishes.
“Leonard Cohen” is a quiet, introspective turn. First accompanied solely by an acoustic guitar, Kris sings about why he makes music. The drums join briefly for each chorus before dropping out. At the end of the second chorus, the whole band joins in for a triumphant extended crescendo to end the track. (The next time I’m making a mixtape, this is the song I’m using to bring the tone out of its subdued middle.)
The EP ends with stop.drop.rewind at its proggiest—on “Shadows in the Cave”, the band crafts a track based on Plato’s allegory of the cave. Kris tries his Geddy Lee impression in the chorus (and does a halfway decent job at it). The extended outro is a bit overdone but the band manages to stay on point long enough to avoid sounding self-serving—especially in a live setting.
While stop.drop.rewind have the audacity to call themselves prog, this is progress that I can support. Check it out.
1 I spent enough time in basements pretending to be an elven wizard to have listened to the occasional Rush song worth the tape it’s recorded onto.
Once hailing from the salty tundra of Syracuse, NY, Ben now calls the DC suburbs his home. He fell in love with punk after listening to Punk-O-Rama 3, Less Than Jake and MXPX in middle school. He loves to slam dance but is too large to stage dive.
When he’s not pretending to have exquisite musical taste, he’s raising two children, designing RPG products and practicing law. (Who knows if he’ll ever get the hang of it.)
