Self Against City - Take It How You Want It

Genre rock Publisher Rushmore Records External Links Official Website Rushmore Records

Almost every time I've attempted to listen to Take It How You Want It, I've found myself distracted. The first time I played it, I only managed to get one minute into the first track, "Tonight (The Process)", before I discovered that a song from the upcoming Saint Etienne album had leaked, so I just had to drop everything and track that down. On other attempts, it would be similar; the Internet would throw up an interesting site or email, someone in the house would try to get my attention, or I'd be walking and listening on my headphones when I'd catch a glimpse of some interesting out of the corner of my eye. I would hear the beginning, get distracted, and my attention would return just to hear the last few chords of the EP. Not an encouraging endorsement of the band's sound.

But that's being a little too harsh on the Sacramento-based Self Against City. Signed to Rushmore Records after placing some of their early tracks on the Internet, they play competent indie-rock that would slot in perfectly as background music to a college scene in a teen film from anytime in the past ten years. You won't find any synthesizers here, just plain old guitars and drums, a little out of fashion right now, considering that the biggest waves in the scene in the moment are from bands that are pillaging the 1980s post-punk era.

"Let Me Go" is a microcosm of the entire EP. It begins with a quiet guitar strum, lasting for a scant few seconds before the louder guitars and drums kick in to begin the song proper. Jonathan Temkin sings earnest vocals over the top, delivering slightly trite lyrics, including the rather risible couplet "I met you where nobody knew my name / And our spark quickly turned into a flame" It alternates between quiet and loud; quiet to emphasise the big emotional points of the verses, loud and fast for the chorus and the final crescendo. It's completely adequate, but heard many, many times before, and it doesn't have any real hook to stick in the memory. The other songs follow the same template; there's a a lovely segue between "The Process (Tonight)" and "Speechless" which makes them merge into each other, but aside from that, there are few variations away from the indie template.

Despite this, there are a few promising signs for the future. Self Against City are, after all, a band that has only been going for six months, and although most of this EP is a little too straight-forward, the usage of samples in the final song "Always" indicates that they're willing to experiment beyond the bare norm. Hopefully, the experimentation will help them develop an individual sound, one that is more arresting to the listener.