Review: birdwatching by CLIFFDIVER released via SideOneDummy
When I was starting this blog out, I went on a huge discovery kick and listened to a lot of classic scene records I had never heard. I sort of laughed off bands like The Mezingers or Spanish Love Songs for branding themselves on being punk for thirty-somethings. This was only four to five years ago, and yet as I sit here and birdwatching opens with "thirty, flirty, and thriving!!!" I realize it's now me who is now the target demographic.
Thirty years and I still don't know shit,
Thirty years and I still don't show it,
Here's to hoping I outgrow this.
Of course, "thirty" is not the only song written from this wiser point of view. "Midnight mass" reflects on friends we’ve had to leave behind, glazes over the fact that maybe we were mutually not good influences, but also accepts how we've grown apart. The song "baby billy's bible bonkers" talks about the one who got away and how time can change everyone often causing a rift between us and the people we've always thought would be around forever. "I reckon you might could i s'pose" closes the album and talks about something we all always reference in this scene; The negative feedback loop of nostalgia.
Both co-vocalists, Joey Duff and Briana Wright, show how they’ve evolved as front runners on birdwatching. On the last record both were great in their own right but here they show more of their chemistry as well as where their strengths lie on individually led tracks. From just track one we hear how Briana absolutely sores and Joey plays off of this with more of a harder edged approach. On lead single "dayz gone" Briana shows her hand at how things have really caught up to her with Joey taking over on the bridge as the friend who's going through all of this at the same time. The best example of this chemistry is found on "team fight tactics," a downright magical love song in terms of sonics and delivery. If you've been to a CLIFFDIVER set you're probably familiar with both of these singers playing off each other for some banter and they're really managed to capture all of this right here on a record. All of this while going line for line, bar for bar, never stealing the show from one another.
Individually each make just as much of an impact. On the Briana led "lord have mercer" she shows how much of her volume is part of the craft. This leads into "black lodge breakfast burrito," which was the b-side to "dayz gone." Here Joey shows he can tackle the more gruff and harder edge rock songs in the band's catalog. They run back this strategy on "would tho" into "baby billy" where the emotional tones are reversed. "Would" is a sort of classic post-hardcore moment where Joey hangs with the best of them. "Baby billy" sees Briana give an absolutely heartbreaking performance over a simple, effective acoustic cut.
Of course, two singers do not make an entire band, and CLIFFDIVER proves here they are at the top of their class. Songs like "thirty" are quintessentially this band but leans more into the punk side than the single-ready, but still soulful "dayz gone." I already mentioned "team fight tactics" but the sugary sweet whimsy sound enveloping the entire track really makes it stand out. It's also so fundamentally different from anything else on the record and demonstrates the range this band has. There are plenty of dramatic shifts on birdwatching but one string of tracks serves as a particularly fast coaster ride. The playful "guitar pro 5 theme" interlude leads into "CLIFFDRIVER," a shorter hardcore song on positivity. From there we get "would tho" a song which upholds this intensity but in a much different way. "Would" reminds me of the MySpace classic songs, a backbone of 80s music made aggressive with guitar chugging and post-hardcore injections. It also has a great, heavy breakdown composed in its own pocket and is crushing vocally.
There is one feature, by NY's Carpool on "goin' for the garbage plate." This track really embodies Carpool's style, this track could very well fit on their own My Life in Subtitles from earlier this year but also thematically fits on birdwatching. Briana did a vocal feature on Carpool's record and on both albums there's a veer into a shorter hardcore song so it also makes sense these bands would be on each other's radar. The vocal feature itself reminds me of what I enjoy about Carpool's vocal performances, it plays like an impassioned rant after a night gone too far. It's backed by a midwestern bridge born in a genre but belonging to the band playing it.
The last time I wrote about CLIFFDIVER I talked about a memory I have from an old friend I had when I was in my teens. There is a conclusion to the story there which came about in the past couple of years. But you don’t come to these to hear about me, you come to these to hear about the bands, so here’s a different one. In November of last year I saw CLIFFDIVER at the Hawthorne theater in Portland. I had to go alone and almost decided not to, Joey saw a tweet I made and replied saying I should come. I did, he remembered who I was, told me what the best song ever written was and said “it’s gonna be a great night, even better with you here.” The set itself made me feel as welcome as he did. I danced, I screamed along, I even got to hear a Creed cover while me and my east coast friends were going on a little kick of them. It was maybe my favorite show I’ve gone to since moving out west.
If you, a listener, want to know what Joey Duffy thinks is the best song ever written, go to a CLIFFDIVER show. Joey, if you want to know the end of my “Lemon Lake” story, I’ll tell you when our paths cross again.
"team fight tactics" is featured on the AsterTracks spotlight playlist on Spotify
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