Maritime

Heresy And The Hotel Choir

[4.5/5]

It seems as if former Promise Ring frontman Davey von Bohlen has done enough living for an entire lifetime in the past decade. He had a brain tumor removed, fathered two children and, most importantly for the purposes of this review, released two albums with Maritime. How all these experiences subconsciously figured into the production of Heresy And The Hotel Choir is uncertain; however, one thing that is clear is von Bohlen has once again hit his stride as a songwriter-and while Heresy is admittedly a pop affair, it eschews the cutesy nature of his previous output in favor of more expansive songs that are upbeat and even borderline aggressive.

Sporting jangly guitars and an impossibly catchy vocal hook, the opener “Guns Of Navarone” is pretty much as perfect as an indie-pop song can get, while “For Science Fiction” sports a distorted bassline and a driving drumbeat that perfectly complements von Bohlen’s emphatic vocals. However, that’s not to say Heresy And The Hotel Choir is a one-trick pony; in fact one of the album’s most captivating tracks is “First Night On Earth,” a Radiohead-esque number sporting acoustic guitar and ominous atmospherics. In other words, if you can’t find something you enjoy on Heresy-well, you’re probably not listening hard enough. (FLAMESHOVEL) Jonah Bayer



ROCKS LIKE

Decibully’s Sing Out America!

Jets To Brazil’s Four Cornered Night

The Weakerthans’ Reunion Tour



IN-STORE SESSION WITH FRONTMAN DAVEY VON BOHLEN



Your last album came out just over a year ago. Did you have a lot of these songs stockpiled?

No; totally the opposite, actually. This one being so fast is really more of a case of the last one being so slow. We wrote and recorded We, The Vehicles really far in advance of it actually being released in the States, so it actually looks like we’re working hard when we’re really just plugging along at our usual pace.



Would you agree that Heresy And The Hotel Choir is more aggressive than Maritime’s previous releases?

Oh, absolutely. We’re totally aware of that. I don’t think it was super conscious, but there’s a whole new personality grouping here so the fact that the band sounds anything similar to the way we did on our last record is maybe more surprising. [Laughs.] For three or four years in my songwriting life, I couldn’t inch it above 60 or 65 [beats per minute], and now these songs are well over 100. I don’t know what happened.



How would you say the personality of the band is different?

Our personalities collectively are at a lower energy output, and everything on every level is that much less of a big deal in this new environment. That’s not to say any one of us has changed or that some relaxed pothead joined the band or anything like that. It’s just the way that we relate, and it’s made everything a lot happier.



So what’s Maritime’s touring schedule going to be like?

It’s definitely not what we would consider a full-time touring band; instead, it’s kind of a “play it by ear and do what we can and what we want” type of thing. I think there used to be an element of, “Man, we have not been to the Southeast, those kids are going to be totally angry,” and now I’m not really concerned about who we’ve “treated” to Maritime or who we haven’t, you know what I mean? [Laughs.]

That said, do you still get a rush playing live?

Oh yeah, absolutely. That’s really all you let go of because you can always release records or write songs; music doesn’t leave, the only thing you are giving up is playing live, which is obviously a huge thing to give up or I would have stopped playing shows a long time ago. The exciting part of being in a band is getting onstage and not knowing what’s going to come out of your mouth or playing songs and hitting your stride so to speak, where you’re like, “Wow, we’re a band, this feels really good.” It sounds really basic, but those are the things you can’t really recreate in other facets of life. -Jonah Bayer