Tags: boston, lesser known yet streamable artists, rock, taxpayer, virally yours
Bandguide Member
Summary: It’s a precarious time to be a Taxpayer in America. As the very definition of a Taxpayer is one who upholds society’s fragile order through personal contribution, the fallout from constant charity is a stripping away of luxury, a breaking of wills and a decay that starts with the material and works inward toward the personal. It’s said that you can decipher the health of a state by taking the pulse of its Taxpayer. If the sentiment extolled on this Boston quintet’ sophomore effort, “Don’t Steal My Night Vision” (Lunch Records), is any indication, this state is broken and beyond repair. Born from a musical spark ignited in the early 90s over traditional American rites of passages – from teenage cigarette-smoking hangouts to discovering hardcore punk – Taxpayer has grown up and surpassed its contemporaries, boasting a musical tightness and confidence that speaks to its almost twelve years of playing music together. Building on the success of 2005’s breakout single “When They Were Young,” garnering national praise and regular rotation on FNX 101.7 Radio Boston, as well as a 2007 split-EP with local luminaries Dear Leader, Taxpayer’s latest effort takes its ambitious arena-ready modern rock sound and filters it through a grainy projection of modern life cast on the front door of the foreclosed home down the street. Taxpayer’s hyper-literate lyrical styling reflects a paranoid society buried under asphalt-coated disillusionment and mental fears turned real, depicting a bare-bones culture that’s fallen under the counter, growing tired with inescapable multi-media glitz but unable to do anything about it. There is no trust, there is no momentum; there are only debts to pay. April 15 arrives every morning for those still clinging to this fabled-yet-faded American dream we were all once raised on. The vocal message is able to cross state lines through the impulsively pounding sonic sounds that capture the unrelenting nature of Fugazi and stuff it violently it into Radiohead’s not-OK hard drive. Lead single “We Have Arrived” races to the left of the dial like an ex-patriot seeking Replacement revolution; “The Less We’re Impressed” is a dirge-like anti-Orwellian modern rock battle cry; lights-low ballad “Darwin’s Club” challenges the posturing of our Coldplays; and “Night Vision” forcefully Hums its reverb along a deliberate pace, as to not ignore the empty lawn chairs and rotted bus stop benches that once sprung flowers, family and hope. Every word on the packaging of “Don’t Steal My Night Vision,” from the cover titles to liner notes, are embolden in capital letters, spitting at the sudden lower-caseness of society that has propelled us down this slippery slope of societal mistrust and cultural vapidity. When there is nothing, all hope falls into the hands of the Taxpayer. After eight years plodding off the tracks, the message is as clear as the contribution. Taxpayer is Jared Marsh, Maclaine Diemer, Michael Jone
Dear Leader, The Sheila Divine, The Gravel Pit, Exposed, Hallelujah The Hills
