![]() For some, Kasai's addition has worked as a distraction from that unequivocal beastliness. In duo form, the tune would've sounded incomplete.Īnd perhaps that's what some folks have liked about Big Business all along: Where I heard pop possibility turned tough, I suppose others simply heard two guys beating pretty good songs about social anxieties into a heavy metal mess. Lyrically and musically, it's an epic battle of nerves. Warren anxiously shouts phrases like "Too many squares/ Too many cruds/ Too many nerds." His distorted bass and Willis' restless drum beating wrestle Kasai's guitar pattern- staccato notes nervously scattered through the mix with delay- for room. This album's mid-point weirdness, "I Got It Online", works through a similar spatial effect. He keeps his tone and sound small, though, a juxtaposition that emphasizes the size of the giants- bass, guitar, and Warren and Willis' countering vocals- towering overhead. On single "Gold and Final", Kasai's guitar actually takes the lead, twisting through an anxious, repetitive phrase. On "The Drift", for instance, bass and guitar are locked into a direct charge, while Willis dances on and around the beat with his cymbals. "You take the east/ And I'll take the west/ If we meet in the middle/ We'll know," barks Warren, his voice handled better than ever before by producer Phil Ek. The hooks are still memorable, and the arrangements are still heavy. Kasai adds texture and dimension, augmenting what's there instead of adulterating it. Warren still manhandles a viscous bass tone that he funnels into heavy themes. ![]() Mind the Drift seems to be an expansion of that: Willis still viciously circumnavigates his drumkit with authority and adventure. Big Business go for skuzzy bass and busy drums. Phoenix goes for sharp guitars and billowing keyboards. Aside from both having backed more-established acts (Phoenix once backed Air Mind the Drift is Big Business' second since becoming an official half of the Melvins), both bands take magnetic pop cores and cast them into surprising musical contexts. Infinitely likable and accessible but ultimately distinct and identifiable, Big Business have long seemed hard rock's answer to Phoenix. They've had fun, too, taking risks with the occasional expansive instrumental track or a hard-charging tune that, without warning, opens wide into synthesizer wizardry and choral vocals. To these ears, Willis and Warren have always been a pop band that clad great hooks- listen for "Eis Hexe" from Head For the Shallow, or "Grounds for Divorce" from Here Come the Waterworks- within thick metal plates. While that may sound like quintessential question-begging, it's not, as bassist Jared Warren and drummer Coady Willis added guitarist Toshi Kasai before writing and recording much of number three. ![]() Chances are high that if you like the first two records from L.A.-via-Seattle's Big Business, you'll also like the band's third album in four years, Mind the Drift.
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