Empty Towers is the Rumspringer full-length that I’d been eagerly awaiting since they released their self-titled EP last year. The band is from Tempe, Arizona but their sound is a universal and completely unhinged from their geography. Rumpsringer’s brand of good old fashioned pop punk is as awesome as it is imperfect. The vocals are scratchy without being gruff and perfectly match the upbeat and punky guitar sound. The songs on Empty Towers (beginning with the fuzzy guitars that kick off the opener “With A Hint Of Lyme”) find the perfect balance between warm and catchy pop melodies and the raw and youthful punk I heard at so many basement (and bowling alley) shows when I was much much younger. Empty Towers is full of nostalgia that sounds like a little slice of heaven to me. It’s a fun album that falls a little flat in the second half but is still pretty effing great. I can’t imagine any reason that you wouldn’t also be smitten with Rumspringer and wouldn’t want to sing along. RIYL: The Ergs, early Weston, Ben Deily-era Lemonheads, Banner Pilot, etc…
MP3:
Rumspringer - Future Train
Found your blog via The Hype Machine. Great track – thanks for posting it!
Stick around awhile! There’s tons more good stuff to be found here.
Thanks for writing this up, dude! Interesting that you think it drags a little in the second half -I like the B-Side of the record so much more than the A-Side. Just about all of my favorite songs on the album are on the second half. Ha -though my least favorite is the one that you posted, “Future Train.” Diff’rent stokes!
Really? Ha! Funny how music does that. Either way, a damn fine album. I will say that the more I listen to the whole thing, the more I might have to agree with you.