A Recommendation You Didn't Ask For: Modern Color
Welcome back to another entry for Beyond Myself. Thank god that fall is seemingly here, just a week or two ago I was perpetually drenched in sweat, and now I can finally leave the house with more than one layer on.
Anyways, same thing as last post, here's a recommendation that you didn't ask for.
Pretext for the nerds, Modern Color is a band from Redondo Beach, CA that technically started in 2014, but really 2016 after they changed their lineup and made some other changes, mainly in their sound as I believe they started as like a metalcore band.
I originally heard about Modern Color from an Instagram comment section about underrated bands around 6 years ago. Someone in there replied, recommending checking out Modern Color and their 2020 release album, From the Leaves of Your Garden. Of course, I felt the need to give them a listen. I didn't expect too much, usually getting recommendations of anything from a comment section is a 50/50 of either the best thing you've ever heard, or straight doo doo on the beat. And typically, I get the latter when I take people up on their recommendations.
To my surprise, From the Leaves of Your Garden was exactly what I was looking for. It's a perfect blend of alt rock, grungegraze, (indie?) rock, and whatever else I really liked. (Putting these bands in genres is so stupid sometimes)
The point is, it was really frickin good, and I got hooked immediately. I blasted through the entire album and by the end, 10 out of the 12 song tracklist were aptly placed into my playlist. I couldn't leave it there either, I had to listen to their previous album, Time Slips Behind Us, which came out in 2017. This album is not my favorite, BUT it definitely shows the build-up to the sound of FLYG. Each song has one or two elements of songs that later show up in FLYG and in that way, this album sounded like the building blocks to it. Not a diss, this album slaps as well, they just so happened to outdo themselves with FLYG.
Since my initial discovery of Modern Color about 6 years ago, a lot has transpired. I've seen them 3 times live, once at the Cobra Lounge, once at the Subterranean, and once at the House of Blues. I've bought the vinyl version of From the Leaves of Your Garden. I have 3-4 shirts from them, and even talked briefly with the drummer and bassist at one of the shows. All of this to say, this is arguably one of my favorite albums and bands.
I've recommended them every time I've been asked for music recommendations, and I'm confident I'm not pointing people toward some noise pollution. Hell, I even have a painted version of the album cover done by starving artist and my friend, Jess. (commission & support your local artist btw)
Music wise, as I said, they're a little mix of everything, but also trying to get into genres is a pain. Also, I don't really have the desire to get into all the music fancy schmancy stuff and attempt to describe music via words. If you've got ears, then you've got the best means to understand what I'm saying attached to you.
Though if you're not convinced, some of their notable inspirations are Joyce Manor, Title Fight, HUM, Deafheaven, Deftones, Touche Amore, and a couple others, but this list is already naming too many bangers. If you like any of these bands, I'd give MC a listen.
My favorite song off the album, and a contender for my favorite song in general, is "Jacaranda." It's just the perfect song; it has a great riff, great vocals from frontman Fleming, and it shifts from a singing part to a hardcore-esque scream section near the end, handled by drummer Vince. Once again, you just gotta experience it for yourself.
Though I do recommend listening to the album in its entirety, for the people who don't like listening to entire albums, my personal curated recommendations in order are:
(Obviously) Jacaranda
On & Off
Empty Rooms
Head Change
Out of Reach
Smiling Face
Pale (If you really like fry screams, they're great at it. Also, fun fact, this song was the last on their set list every time I've seen them)
Thankfully, MC has also grown a much larger fanbase than when I first started listening to them, I do mourn the niche gatekeeping I could do but I am happy with their well deserved success. Nowadays, I've heard rumors that they're working on a new album, so I await with great anticipation any news about that, and also the next time they tour and get to Chicago. Trust me, I'll be there.
TL;DR: Go listen to From the Leaves of Your Garden
Toodles,
-Edgar
I appreciate how you describe Time Slips Behind Us as building blocks toward the sound of From the Leaves of Your Garden, rather than dismissing it as inferior. That kind of incremental growth often gets overlooked when people only focus on a band's breakthrough record. Do you think the lineup change around 2016 was the main catalyst for that shift, or was it more about them gradually refining their songwriting over those few years?
Further reading: https://slayer2.org/