Europa
Europa is a band that I would have loved in high school. Now hold on, I’m not dissing the band at all (eek, dissing, I think I just went back to high school!) It’s just that, although I listen to a whole range of different music, my personal preferences have begun to lean towards softer, more lyrical songs in the last few years (I know, I know, I’m getting old). And Europa is anything but soft. They play an aggressive form of alternative rock music that never ever takes a breath. And they play it well.
The 6 tracks on their new CD, Weapons, all consist of the trio’s insistent instrumentals. The initial track is an instrumental-only but it’s a short song so you get the full effect of the band’s playing style without getting bored. And then they move into track two which incorporates the vocalist’s skills to round out the full effect. Their instruments are basic – drums, bass, guitars and their singer – but they play them in that old school way that makes you feel like there are far more instruments that there are and like they’re pressed against you on all sides. It’s the kind of music that makes you want to go crowd surfing. Or become a groupie.
Weapons isn’t a song that you can sit down to. It’s not something I’d play in the background on my laptop while I was doing work. It’s music that grabs you by your heart and reminds you of that old bumper sticker you had on your car; “if you’re not pissed off, you’re not paying attention”. It’s a wake-up call that lets you know that there’s nothing dead about the alternative rock scene in the Bay Area. And it’s a wake-up call to me that maybe I should resume listening to music that can’t just be played in the background.
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