Girl at the Rock Shows

I told you all that this year would be the year I go back to my roots. Instead of covering world-traveling all-stars, my goal this year is to spotlight the local scene. I more mentioned this as to how it applies to my live concerts I go check out but I also meant I would be diving into the local scene a bit more when it comes to my album reviews and I can’t think of a better local band to highlight right now than Briefcase. Okay, you caught me. I’ve never covered Briefcase before. Sure, they are local, and ‘Are the Stars Keeping Score?’ is their fourth EP, yet I have never heard of them before. The scene here in the Twin Cities is too big for one person to know everything. I know this. I may feel like I know the local scene, but I don’t know it completely, and I am so excited to check out this EP and see what Briefcase is all about.

This four-song EP opens with “Aorist.” As soon as this song kicked in, I realized that Briefcase would not be “just another local act” to me. Although there’s nothing wrong with being “just another local act,” Briefcase instantly had a sound, unlike the local scenes I have immersed myself in over the years. Sure, there is an almost indie rock vibe behind it all, but this opening track has an epic darkness to it that sometimes comes off as almost droney. With an ambient fuzz happening throughout the background of this track, the layers that can be folded back and analyzed in “Aorist” left me so intrigued, stunned, confused, and enamored.

“Strong” is the shortest song on this EP at just over two minutes, but it instantly became my favorite. This song leans a bit more into the punk world of things. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still this slight darkness to the vocals in some of this song, but overall, this is a bright and boppy tasty lick that will have you nodding your head along to the infectious beat. An almost vintage tint to the vocals gives the song an almost surf punk feel to some of the vocals, but I like how, once you get settled into that feeling, the band comes in with that doomsday darkness that they do so well. All of these contrasting elements shouldn’t work together, yet “Strong” made sense to me, and I found it to be quite brilliant.

Third on this album is “Awake Eyes,” which, again, leans a bit into a surf punk feeling that I wasn’t expecting based on the opening track of this album. Even though it has some of the same tendencies as “Strong,” everything seems to change with this song. The focus turns from the instrumentation to the lyrics, and that’s just the beginning. It’s pretty crazy what Briefcase has done with just two minutes and forty-four seconds in this song. Clear movements and modes are scattered throughout the song, normally taking minutes to lay out and get comfortable in. Not Briefcase. They breeze through many emotions, styles, vibes, and everything of the like in mere seconds, creating this sound that is both dizzying yet perfect and not overwhelming at the same time. I understand that that whole statement is a huge contradiction, but I think “Awake Eyes” is just one song you must hear to truly understand.

‘Are the Stars Keeping Score?’ ends up “Lolliscicle.” This final track is the perfect kind of triumphant ending that you would want from a band. The brightness that comes with this ending song is quite crazy if you spend a second thinking about the dark and droney track that opened up the album. “Lolliscicle” has a slight nod to the 90s alt-rock scene, a new element I hadn’t noticed in the previous three tracks. Sure, that hint could have been in these songs all along, but I haven’t caught on to it until now, and it is an element that Briefcase does so well.

Maybe I’ve been living under a rock, or maybe Briefcase is just one of those bands that haven’t been on my radar due to them not being in line with the same scenes in town I am. Regardless, my deepest and sincerest apologies to the humans of this band. Briefcase is a band that is not to be slept on. Their sound is unique, with elements you will recognize blended perfectly with sounds that will intrigue you. We so often forget that music is supposed to be creative, but Briefcase instantly reminded me of that. I can not thank them enough for the reminder and the passion they put into ‘Are the Stars Keeping Score?’

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