Must hear tracks: “Brother” “I Am Not Surprised” “Memorize The City”
The Organ is a signpost on the highway of music history; a reminder that between a scene’s heyday and inevitable resurgence, it doesn’t go dormant. There are artists making records worth hearing in all genres at all times.
At their core, this Vancouver 5-piece is a solid New-Wave band with a distinct voice. The fact that they arrived on the scene in 2004 rather than 1984 is irrelevant at this point. If we let the songs speak for themselves, outside of historical context, Grab That Gun (The Organ’s finest album), is a tight fusion of depressive anxiety and jagged rhythms,
Grab That Gun’s opening track, “Brother” would be considered a classic tune had it been performed by any of their better-known influences.
It explodes to life with a muscular drum and bass groove. Flawless reverberating guitar riffs arrive quickly to build the groove, and the titular organ finally fills everything out.
Katie Sketch’s lyrics deal in wistful anxiety (a consistent theme throughout the record) – preaching of impending chaos, making vague threats. Take her word for it, everything is falling apart:
The question is, who is “they”?
At the bridge, “Brother” expands in sound and perspective. With the band slamming away at full force, causing a scintillating ruckus, Sketch admits:
“here is the best part of the song,
where I admit,
that I might be wrong,”
Breaking the 4th wall and adding her own tongue-in-cheek flair (and maybe some 21st century irony) to what was already a stellar song.
Beyond Katie Sketch’s songwriting chops and compelling delivery, Debbie Cohen’s guitar work is perfectly curated for the song’s changing moods – echoing staccato for riffs, radiant blur for chords. The drums maintain a consistent clip throughout, but sprinkle in micro fills (a perfectly placed snare here, some cymbal crashes there) with utmost patience and taste. Beneath it all, the bass is a churning engine.
Simply put, I adore this track. I’d be hard pressed to find a flaw in its composition. After “Brother,” Grab That Gun never quite reaches such heights again. Instead, it settles into downtempo introspection.
On “Love, Love, Love,” Sketch steps boldly into Morrissey’s territory, singing:
“see the people sitting over there?
I want to kiss and touch them everywhere,
oh no not because I really care,
oh god no no I wouldn’t dare.”
Looking on from the sideline, surrounded by inaccessible beauty, pining away for just “a small part of it.”
“Basement Band Song” covers the fantasy of writing suites of adolescent emotional tempest. Kindred spirits in creativity and loneliness, coming together to “go down to the mall, look at people, judge them all” and turn that resentment into indie rock gold. It’s a fascinating juxtaposition between social insecurity and artistic hubris that provides more insight into the psyche of young musicians than they’d ever be comfortable admitting.
As Grab That Gun unfolds, it becomes clear that uptempo anxiety suits them best. They soar like a missile of white-hot insecurity on tunes like “I Am Not Surprised” and “Brother” (of course), reaching for and grasping the hair-raising emotional maximalism of young adulthood. An unquenchable thirst for experience wrestling with the inner tension that such longing begets. As the tempo slows down, they dip into wallowing, losing the spark in the process.
“Memorize the City” closes the record out with more of the same uptempo wistfulness that characterizes The Organ’s best work, while peppering in seaside imagery that pays small homage to the studio where Grab That Gun was recorded, only blocks from the Vancouver seaside.
With Grab That Gun, The Organ shot for the moon and landed among the stars – coming oh-so-close to crafting a modern classic. There’s no shame in the attempt, though. Grab That Gun is a solid record, equally suited for the endless highway, the dive bar dance floor, or rotting in bed.
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