Nightmare Of You

Infomaniac

Nightmare Of You left behind landscapes of lower fidelity with their self-titled 2005 full-length, a glossy romp that soaked the band’s ’80s Britpop in dancier, electrified waters. Infomaniac is a natural progression: a warmer, low-key affair that leaves most of its bags in Manchester but seeks settlement in Liverpool. Though most tracks remain playful and upbeat, with riffs sure to resonate with fans of Panic At The Disco’s exclamation point-free output, other moments prove frontman Brandon Reilly still has those Morrissey records laying about his loft. Angst never sounded so smooth as it does on “Amsterdam.”

Some effects-pedal fiddling materializes in “I Think I’m Getting Older” and “Experimental Bed,” but Infomaniac’s comfortable sonic embrace remains its main draw. Unfortunately, this stripped-down approach doesn’t hide that the tracks largely lack the snarling lyrical bite of the band’s earlier material, even with re-recordings of two of their oldest songs (“Hey Sweetheart,” “Please Don’t Answer Me”). For an album supposedly about how this generation are addicts for non-stop information, the social analysis could be stronger and the songs could be more varied in mood and dynamism, but Infomaniac provides a suitable CliffsNotes of the band’s intentions.
(THE BEVONSHIRE LABEL) Brian Schultz
GO DOWNLOAD: “Someday, But Not Today"

ROCKS LIKE:
Cassino’s Sounds Of Salvation
The Anniversary’s Your Majesty
Panic At The Disco’s Pretty. Odd.

IN-STORE SESSION WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST BRANDON REILLY AND GUITARIST JOSEPH McCAFFREY

What were you looking to accomplish with Infomaniac?
JOSEPH McCAFFREY: Music that we've listened to that shapes the musicians we are today comes from a more organic, raw, vintage place. We don't really listen to too much contemporary, polished pop music. I think if you listen to records by the Beatles and stuff of that nature, you get that warm, older sound, and I think the way we recorded it is somewhere along those lines.

Did the pop-star pep-talk bit in "Tell Me When It's Over" stem from a personal experience?
BRANDON REILLY: No… Andy Warhol once said that around the year 2000 or whatever–I forget what year it was–but that everyone's gonna get their five minutes of fame. [It’s actually 15 minutes, not five, and the phrase never specified a year. –epic fail ed.] You look at YouTube and all these things where everyone really does think at some point they're a pop star with that kind of thing. It's very general. It's not like a literal pop star [thing]. It's more like this celebrity craving center of attention, needing attention for doing something that actually requires less brains than more brains to do.

What happened when the Bevonshire Label severed from East/West Records?
McCAFFREY: At the time, the Bevonshire Label mainly existed just as a vanity label–a logo to attach to the CD that East/West was distributing. When we left East/West, we had the rights to the name. I subsequently started a management company called Bevonshire Management, which is all sort of in the same family. Since then, we've secured distribution [and] hired a publicist. We're running it like a label with a marketing campaign and producing our albums and stuff like that. It started as a name, and it's evolved into a DIY indie label.

What challenges have you encountered in doing this whole thing on your own?
REILLY: Not having a source of money from the label. Instead, we're having some people [who] believe in the band investing [in] us right now.
McCAFFREY: Money and time, as well. If you're on a bigger label and you're putting [out] a record, your band have an A&R person, a product manager, a radio promotion person, a publicist-you name it, there's a whole slew of people working on the album. I think that each of us has to wear a few different hats and work a few different jobs to get it done. [BS]

The Bevonshire Label http://www.nightmareofyou.com