Roadside Monument -- Beside This Brief Hexagonal

5/10

"Emo is just rock music with bad singing." -- Jesse Smith, drummer for Zao (1994-2004)

That quote might not be entirely fair, but in many (certainly not all!) cases, I have found it to be true.  Roadside's Monument's debut, Beside This Brief Hexagonal, certainly does not break this stereotype. The vocals are harsh, nasally, and desperately off-pitch. The music is daring to be unstructured and different, and yet the kids playing it don't yet have the ability and versatility to play diversely enough to make much of it stand out (much like I don't have the ability and versatility not to end a sentence with seventeen prepositions). Much of this music is aimless, simplistic, watery noodling. Still, there are moments, like the crunchy, impromptu jam at the end of "Prozac Princess," which promise that once this band gets a little experience behind their belts, they might just takeoff like a rocket. Eh, that sounded dirty.


1996 Tooth & Nail Records
1. Oh So Fabled 3:45
2. Seed 2:48
3. A Girl Named Actually 3:17
4. Still 3:25
5. Prozac Princess 5:45
6. Lobbyest 4:56
7. Immersion 3:02
8. Greek Tragedy 3:56
9. Boasting In Weakness 2:38
10. Mothered Others 6:23