CD Review: The City Yelps "Half Hour" (Emotional Response)

[$8 // http://jenandstew.com/item/THE-CITY-YELPS-half-hour/279/p2c11]

Sometimes I feel like it takes me entirely too long to review music and whenever that is the case I feel like it is either because the music which I am reviewing is digital or on compact disc.   Well, I did a sort of "autumn cleaning" recently by deleting all of my digital downloads in an attempt to start again and stay on top of them (ha!) and then decided to also take some time to focus on these CDs I have been seemingly neglecting for months.   I actually listened to most of these CDs- but I especially remember The City Yelps- when we'd drive about an hour each way to see the Connecticut Tigers.   It was one of the main reasons why I didn't mind the drive-- it gave me a chance to listen to CDs which I needed to review.   But their season ended and since September I've been feeling the whole "not-having-time-to-listen-to-CDs" thing.

The City Yelps has this loud and distorted rock n roll sound which often time mixes with elements of punk rock.    It can be anywhere from "Bleach" era Nirvana in that dark sense, to almost becoming post punk as it brings out some melodies and hints of Jim Carroll.    It's bits of Social Distortion but also could be found on the soundtrack to "Empire Records" in that 1990's way that also makes me think of the 1980's as well with songs about how "Girl, you really got me going".    Billy Idol comes to mind just as much as you can hear surf guitar riffs and there can be instruments over lyrics, even including an instrumental number.

Lyrically, there is quite a bit going on throughout these songs but for whatever reason "Music For Adverts" sticks out to me.    I don't know if it's just because of how much music I listen to or what, but there came a time when the music I was listening to- in the sense that there were these artists being submitted to me for review- started showing up in the background of car commercials and I never really cared about it until I started hearing songs from other artists and thought "It sounds like they're trying to get themselves into a car commercial".   It's a very strange time for music in that sense and I don't think it's going to get any less strange, but yeah, The City Yelps having a song which touches on that does help.

Overall this album just has that in your face quality that will initially grab you and bring you in like walking by a venue where a punk band is playing would get you through the door, but then the more you listen to it and the more deeply involved you become the more you will begin to appreciate the music and just the general sense of talent which is involved with it.   There is also a "Side 1" and "Side 2" mark on the back because this is available on vinyl, which really if you're into records more than anything else I would also recommend tracking it down and purchasing it as such though as far as I can tell right now there is, sadly, no cassette so if you're like me you'll just crank out the CD on the regular.