Univox – Tonight 7″ – Styrofoam Drone

Philadelphia’s own UNIVOX are back with a brand new 7″ featuring two new songs. It looks like their first official release of the year, coming in both cassette and 7″ single format.

Since it’s been awhile, Univox made a point to come back strong with their new single for the year. “Tonight” is a heartfelt story following a girl with a marching rhythm that doesn’t stop for anything. It pops off in the final thirty seconds with a galloping drum beat that breaks the song open at it’s fraying seams, changing things up at the end with their nearly (and suddenly) country-punk sound. The vocal efforts are probably the highlight of this track, where everything culminates into this triumphant anthem with fist-in-air shouting, almost sounding like a riot of sorts. Everyone included seems to be beaming with energetic fury as they carry on, where you can understand nearly every word thanks to excellent production values. They continue to follow the girl in the story until they ultimately find her fucking in a phone booth, which without much difficulty challenges you to imagine the scenario.

The B-side is another new track titled “Rug Stain”, beginning with a hollow sounding acoustic guitar to pave the way early on. As the song unfolds, high voltage guitar leads come into play and guide this song down a much more sprawling and destructive path than previously thought. Drastic momentum changes occur a few times throughout which constantly alters the direction and mood of the song, wherein trying to keep up and make sense of it all can be a task in itself. Parts actually manage to sound like an older Neutral Milk Hotel song (referring to the use of the brass instruments towards the last leg of the track). It’s an ambitious and uniquely structured song to say the least, but if you were looking for something a bit more simplistic, this single might prove to be fairly overwhelming as they rarely keep one idea going for even a whole minute.

This isn’t entirely a result of Univox trying too hard, people just have too short of attention spans to be able to keep up with this music. Just think about the kind of stuff that is popular today. It will never be anything close to this genre-mashing that Univox seem to be toying with, as proved in “Rug Stain”. Part of the song sounds like Wall-era Pink Floyd (and I already mentioned Neutral Milk Hotel) while the beginning sounds like bruising indie-rock, followed by a gentle and moving acoustic section before resulting in another rowdy, galloping exit. It’s a tough formula to follow indeed, but somehow they keep their cool and make it work without breaking a sweat. Hear for yourself in these two songs below.

Tonight –