J-Stone’s Lonestar State Pick of the Week!

by Andrew Johnstone

The Lonestar State knows how to pick 'em!

Now I’ve been listening to Modico since before I even knew DFW had a good scene, and watching them grow up from a sort of obscure stoner rock vibe to the progressive power house they’ve become today is a real pleasure indeed. Their upcoming self-titled EP CD (because you have to separate it from a 7-inch) is a fine sampling of this maturation.

After dropping the practically useless keyboard player (brief stint, never recorded with the band) Modico is much tighter than before, shifting a lot of the singing over from Cole to Thomas, which adds a new flavor to the vocals which is that much more digestible and pop oriented. Both of them still bear the singing and their combined guitar work is still a fantastic blend of epic and hard rock riffs, providing an aggressive but not offensive style which defines the band. Still spectacular, and even more so than before is Toby’s drumming, which together with the bass lines of the always sexy John Cope forms the backbone upon which Modico builds its sonic landscapes (ew–that phrase sounds so Rolling Stone like–).

The new EP hits the ground running with “Hills” which is a very catchy up tempo song that borrows from dance rock beats that could easily come from the UK. Everything, even the production on the vocals and the steady rhythmic piano coupled with Toby’s handy work really just make this a fun track that is a great introduction for what is about to follow.

Now “Dead Decoy Days” here’s where the word progressive starts getting thrown around. Post-rock gurus Explosions in the Sky are blatantly an influence on this track. The guitar work is very reminiscent of anything off The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place however Modico, not being an instrumental post-rock band provides enough hard rock influence and a reasonable song length for anyone to enjoy this song. They bring the intellectual art-house stylings of post rock and prog rock, and mix it with more familiar elements, almost like a starters guide to crazy music.

“Hope Over Hate” tops out as Modico’s longest song, only five minutes and four seconds, pretty good for skating the boundaries of music that can reach up to the 30 minute thresh hold. The tom drum action in this song is so great; it’s like a much darker version of The Kings of Leon song “The Bucket.” The song crescendos into an all out rock explosion by the end that almost feels like the song is broken up into mini-movements, no doubt another post-rock influence.

Modico is delivering a kind of music that most people have never heard of, or care to never hear of and packaging it into a deceptively attractive hard rock persona. This introduction of post rock elements with pop rock elements allows a descriptor like progressive to be significantly more acceptable when used for Modico. They are progressive, pushing forward a style of music that beforehand was inaccessible to most of the population.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Modico is a group of pioneers and in a few years I’m going to be talking about how the popular kids need to remember their roots in Modico, just like how I complain about emo kids never knowing who Rites of Springwere.

Go check them out, visit their website at www.modicomusic.com, demand their CD and tell John Cope to give my brother back his towel– (Is that a conflict of interest?)

Listen to more of J-Stone's picks on The Lonestar State, www.WMUCradio.com, Wednesdays from 6-8 PM EST.

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