Memory Bank Litany And Lethargy. Release Date : October 12, 2004. Label: Linus Entertainment. Rating: Andy doesn't dig rating stuff. Man I'm glad I had a chance to hear these guys. It gives me hope that yeah, there's still room in the music industry to have your own sound. You don't have to cut yourself from the same mold to be dynamic and to catch peoples' finnicky and easily-distracted attention these days. You can blend effects into guitar rock and not sound new-new-wave. You can have the ability to sing just about every note known to man and use it as a treat rather than packing it into every single song just to show you can do it. Memory Bank was opening a show I saw in the late fall of 2004. I got to the show much earlier than I had thought I would, and used that as a chance to plunk myself in a key spot at stagefront so I'd have an easier time of photographing later in the evening. Now it's unfortunate I wasn't there to shoot Memory Bank, although really it was probably too dark to do that anyhow. But it was incredible to be situated so close to them for my first run. Because the two bands they were playing with were pretty different from one another, I honestly had no idea what I would be presented with... what it ended up being was a band that actually loosely tied the two ends of the spectrum together. Shortly afterwards, a copy of this album was left in my foyer, and I discovered that their recorded sound was equally brilliant. The disc begins hard with drums and a high, almost whining guitar. It's all a bit tense, like a musical seizure. Vocalist Craig Browne's voice here though counteracts that - it's smooth and mellow and light. Well now i'm just confused... should I be calling an ambulance, or trying to have a nap under the song's influence? The second tune, "Two Lanes," seems to do just the opposite - it starts out low and humming, though it feels like there's some pent-up energy there. Warbly backgrounds come in, additional guitar parts... and then with the chorus Memory Bank starts to hit hard. So much violence! The vocals are edgier here, less fluid from word to word. And then my friends..... then we hit "The 4 Of Us Are Dying." I remember this one very well from the live show, for its captivating nature combined with the striking, magnified slow-motion image of a flying bee projected on the screen behind the band. Soft soft gentle gentle. A little bit eerie actually. It's so drifty, but it's more like a requiem than a lullabye. Ghosts in a graveyard, something like that. We begin to really see what Browne can do with that voice of his, as he opens with and acrobatically-high singsongy trill. It's not, however, forced-sounding. This seems as natural to him as anything else. It's a tune completely out of left field. It appears Memory Bank is full of surprises. "Bleed Like A Hero" comes back a bit to a more standard song. This one is open and airy and soaring. Maybe that has something to do with it being about a hero, but nonetheless... after that, we're back into a tense track with "Horse Drawn"... a thundery bassline and a high-pitched jangling guitar take us headlong into this so-far peculiar disc. I'm amazed at the diversity and the range of emotions it inspires. The lyrics in this song do not belie the nervous sound of the tune. These guys can really take a theme and stick to it. Anyways, as we continue journeying on, we are treated to more and more echoey and spacey guitar sounds. It's one of those CDs you feel like running through the clouds to. Sure they might sometimes be dark stormy rainclouds, but hey, you're still defying gravity... and the voice still lilts and tumbles over top of you as you frolic through those clouds. Lifting, falling, lifting again. The high, screaming guitars duelling with that voice, and so many little pings and squalls and amazing sounds have been created to give this thing it's huge, open appeal. It remains uncluttered even through all the layers. It's a spectacular showing by this band that can only see them rising through Canadian music conciousness. Song of choice : You can't keep me from "Horse Drawn" - it's so push-and-pull on my heart. -Andy Scheffler Elsewhere Memory Bank website Published : February, 2005.