SEEMED SO SWEET | Is/Is

Article by David D. Robbins Jr. |  Is/Is “This Is Happening” (Guilt Ridden Pop)

s the band tells it, the Minneapolis trio known as Is/Is came about by happy accident. Gospel Gossip guitarist and singer Sarah Nienaber was supposed to play a solo gig and asked First Communion Afterparty bassist Sarah Rose to join her. The two felt so good about the experience, they switched guitar roles and recruited drummer Mara Appel to form Is/Is. The music world is better for it. Is/Is is better than either band the girls originally came from. The punk trio kicked out a four-song debut EP, “This Is Happening”, via Guilt Ridden Pop. It’s one of the best EPs of the year. Seriously, this short-but-sweet record is flat-out awesome. “This Is Happening” is a pleasant assault on the ears, balanced between searing guitars and seductively thick textures of gauzy haze. These babes strap on their guitars, set up the drums, and crank out waves of atomic distortion that will blow your hair back.

The music of Is/Is curls itself up to you like a cat at your leg, before each of the four tracks unleashes a pent-up thundering crescendo — loose, raw and poised to claw everything in sight. It’s candy and razor blades. Rose’s muffled and dreamy vocals are draped in a visceral grime of guitars and clanking drums. It’s the perfect musical marriage of beauty and beast — Appel banging away on her kit with a ferociousness equaled by Nienaber’s charged-up bass notes.

The album opener, “So Long”, is a good gauge of the band’s sound. The vocals are melodically entrancing, dipped in a slight reverb, the drums and bass always pushing forward. It’s an anthemic song about change and stagnation in people and the elements: “Watching the leaves burn / Soon there will be snow / And I’ll be singing the same song /Watching the clouds roll / Soon it will be cold / And I’ll be singing the same song … / I’ll be right here … / Watching each other change / Somehow it feels the same / As if we’ve been this way for so long, / Watching the weather change / Winter’s on its way / And it stayed for so long.”

Honestly, this record is so damn good. This band sounds better than Hole or Warpaint. I could see myself traveling up to Minneapolis just for the chance to jump around and belt out some of the lyrics with Rose, fist in the air, bouncing with a few hundred, sweaty, drunken friends. That sick bassline from their second track, “Pretty Girl”, should be enough to energize any crowd, or that 1:11 mark in the song, where Appel’s booming thumps run smack into Rose’s sonic thrashing like glass shattering in a car crash.

The six-and-a-half minute “Death Treat” may be the best track. It begins with a jangly guitar strum, not unlike Jane’s Addiction’s beginning to “Classic Girl”, before blasting into a one-and-half minute wall of beautiful fuzzed-out noise. Then Rose puts the track to rest with this sexy lyrical riff on death, “Death is a treat for her / She gave it to me /  Somehow it seemed so sweet / Death is a treat for us, until we slow down / And put it out.” Note: All lyrics are unofficial. Watch and listen to Is/Is perform a new song, “Sun Tsunami”, for City of Music in the video below.

Is/Is “So Long”