Cassette Review: dead bedrooms "Bummer"

$7 //
https://deadbedroomsva.bandcamp.com/album/bummer //

If you ask me what the best music is, I will tell you that it is simply the music which can bring out strong feelings within you.   Music is not always about guitar + bass + drums or "Well, I like the band that this band sounds like so I like this band too".   Sometimes, music has to feel like it ripped a page out of your diary.   Sometimes, music should feel like you want to confront the band and say "Hey, these are my feelings and I felt them, so how did you know this-- why do you feel them too?"    Music, ultimately, is about making connections.

2017 was a rough year for me.  I went through a lot of changes.  A lot.  And none of them were changes that I chose though I guess you could argue since I lived in a place with an unstable landlord I knew it would eventually be sold and I would eventually be forced out, but that's a bit of nitpicking isn't it?   Everything I went through in 2017 left me wondering at the end of the year what was going to be left of me when I was forced to start over.   I was changing, but I didn't know what type of person I was changing into-- I just knew I wasn't the person I was before.

As per their Bandcamp, the songs on "Bummer" are about feeling like you don't belong anymore.   They are about wanting to go out and fit in with the crowd while still feeling completely comfortable by yourself at home.    This is something I understand because this is something I go through every day of my life now.   I feel like I have a lot of labels on me- intentional or not- which make me not want to go out and see other people because it becomes a topic all too often and so I'd rather stay home, free of judgment.


"I don’t hate you 
But I am still bitter 
From the pain you caused me 
When I wasn’t enough"

Wow.   How long had it been since I had that conversation, about me not feeling like enough.   Years and years... and yet in a lot of ways, I still felt like it was one of the things which tore us apart.    I still don't feel like I am enough to the few people left in my life and so I avoid them until I can figure out who it is I am becoming.  What if I become someone who isolates themselves from the world though?  People have done it in the past.  I feel like this might be how it started for them too.

If you're wondering what this sounds like musically, there are equal parts Smoking Popes as they are fuzzy rock chords.   Hints of Radiohead and this has all of the melody of The Lyndsay Diaries and New End Original.  I hear a slight bit of Buddy Holly at one point and based on the name I would feel weird not pointing out that there are elements of bedroom pop.    The songs on Side B have more of a -gaze feel to them and they also are more singular in the vocals though three out of four members of this band contribute vocals at some point.

"Burnout" gives us a sense of closure for whatever was going on throughout these songs, though I'm not sure I've found the same closure myself so maybe this music can help me get there.    "Bummer" ends on a more positive note though with the song "Mazzy, Baby" which is about a dog named Mazzy.   I dare you to not get the line "Mazzy, baby, don't eat my underwear" stuck in your head.   It is somewhat odd this cassette feels so deep, so heavy, and then one of the biggest things I take away from it is about a dog eating clothing, but isn't that what life is all about really?