Shop our Big Takeover store for back issues, t-shirts & CDs
Follow The Big Takeover
I remember finding Mark Vennis & Different Place’s previous single, “Small Town Vampire,” to be a lot of fun, a neat blend of dark and delicious new wave moves and punk grooves. And while that first sonic encounter (on my part) makes for a good reference point. “In These Times…” is a slightly different beast. It is not so much that you can’t tell that it comes from the same musical mind, but it is enough of a departure to show that this is music willing to test the boundaries, both its own and that of the musical landscape as a whole.
“In These Times…” is an altogether more robust proposition, still bristling with punk swagger but wandering more hard rock pathways, dark and honest, socially reflective, and again employing, as I pointed out with that previous single, a vocal delivery not dissimilar to the style that a young Bob Geldolf used to employ with his iconic band…similarly of the street and poetic, like a punk Springsteen.
Add in a searing guitar solo and a brooding vibe, not to mention an accompanying remix, which does for it the rock and roll format what dub remixes did for reggae, and you have a brilliant sonic package and a fantastic experience.
Mark Vennis is on to a winner here. Rock music without the cliche, punk music without the immaturity…a song that is hard as nails and still accessible and infectious. Yes, infectious; look me in the eye and tell me that you weren’t singing along by the time the chorus came around for the second time. You can’t, can you?
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Spotify
Soundcloud
YouTube
