Human Television
All Songs Written By: Human Television
© 2004 Gigantic Music LLC (675640000323)
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Human Television "inspire(s) euphoria, elation, joy, madness, anger and depravity in human beings. Think Felt, The Wedding Present, Unrest and New Order as appropriate sonic reference points." - pitchforkmedia.com
tracks
- 1 Saw You Walking By
- 2 Tell Me What You Want
- 3 I Forgot
- 4 Yeah Right
- 5 Automobile
- 6 Cars Are Weird
- 7 Sick With Redundancy Check
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You know those late night moments, where you find yourself sitting in front of the TV, flipping through channel after channel, wishing there was something-anything-on that you'd actually like to watch? Or when you're driving through the darkness, scanning the radio dial from end to end, desperately searching for a song that won't offend your ears? Human Television not only understand these moments, but embody an alternative.
"Our primary motivation for writing music is to make more music that sounds like the music we like to listen to," says band frontman Billy Downing, matter-of-factly.
And clearly, he's onto something.
After all, maybe the reason we can't always find something on that we enjoy is because so many people are so busy trying to create the next big craze that they forget what made them want to create in the first place. Human Television, on the other hand, didn't have to go through a period of experimentation and self-discovery to know what they were about. In fact, all it took was a rough demo, a handful of shows, and a little over a year of making music together for the Gainesville, Florida-based band to find themselves picked up by Gigantic Music for doing exactly what they set out to do. They simply made more of the music they liked.
The bands that made that music originally, the ones that inspired Downing and his bandmates - guitarist Boyd Shropshire, drummer Mario Lopez and bassist Richard Davis - are some of the big names from the past. The Wedding Present is the most common parallel drawn to Human Television, but the group will also name New Order, R.E.M., the Kinks, and even Sam Cooke among its influences. Throw it all together and you get the kind of quirky, minimal indie-pop that makes up the band's debut EP, All Songs Written By: Human Television. It's a seven-song release that doesn't so much contribute to any kind of new wave revival as actually catapult you completely back into the past. Sandwich the disc between a Talking Heads album and a Wire release, and you'll forget the millennium ever even rolled over.
"As musicians, we have basically devoted our lives to the pursuit of that inexplicable characteristic in certain songs that makes a person want to listen to them 50 times in a row without their ever becoming old or boring," says Downing. "It's something that inspires a feeling of elation on par with a chemically induced high."
From the melodic overlapping guitar lines and urgently spoken-sung vocals on "Saw You Walking By" to the EP's off-kilter auto obsession ("Automobile," "Cars Are Weird") and the kind of leftfield thinking that brings on a lament like "Sick With Redundancy Check," Human Television have definitely found what they've been looking for. It's one of those impressive debuts that not only deserves repeat listens, but demands them. And it's one hell of a rush.
Aside from the sheer lift of the music, however, there's also a secret to the band's impending success. It's akin to how, when you catch a rerun of your favorite TV show, it provides a feeling of comfort and familiarity; but when you see a new episode, there's the added excitement of something new. The familiar elements are still there, but there are surprises to be found too. So tune in. You'll go back to them again and again, but you'll never forget the first time you hear these songs.
In other words, it's what you've been searching for. It's more of what you like.