Volcanoes Make Islands Return With Sick City

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 30, 2010 5:30PM

“The City of Big Yellers” opens Sick City, the second EP from local group Volcanoes Make Islands, with a squall of distorted drums and discordant guitars. It’s a trick, because while the guitars remain in that vein the vocals come in and provide a counterpoint that wraps everything in an unexpectedly sweet vibe. Of course as soon as you think that’s a neat little trick, the chorus comes in lending a yearning and expansive quality to the tune before itself descending in a chaotic guitar solo.

It’s already pretty obvious that we’re dealing with men of no small ambition propelled by a generous helping of talent.

Of course the danger of opening an EP with such a stellar tune is that it sets the bar for the following material pretty high. The following material is pretty great but it doesn’t quite match up to the challenge set in the disc’s initial four and a half minutes. “Still Here” functions as an extended coda for “The City of Big Yellers,” never realy having a chance to create it’s own identity. This is followed by the noisily pretty “Gypsies” and this does a rather nice job of trying to bridge the beauty with the chaos even if it does hew closer to expected indie rock tropes as far as pacing and melody are concerned. The album closing “Granola” is an excellent song to drift off to since it does it’s best to recapture the unexpected but rewarding vibe the group promised at the outset, largely delivering and sending us off an a high note.

We’re looking forward to seeing where Volcanoes Makes Islands go from here. Sick City is an EP that veers a bit but satisfies, and even stupefies at points, throughout the length of its running time. Their still forming the ground they’re going to stand on and we recommend you get in on the action while that space still allows you to get close to the band.

You can download the whole EP for free at their Bandcamp page.

Volcanoes Make Island play tonight, August 30, at Schubas, 3159 N Southport, 8 p.m., $6, 18+