Diandra Reviews It All

Something is happening in Spain, where more artists are rising to give art-punk. Since seeing El Gaucho and committing to an endless search of finding Spanish rockers that infuse our culture into “American” genres, like Downtown Boys or Javiera Mena, my ears/ heart are especially open to bands like Mourn. At Knitting Factory, they captured the sorted essence of punk through coy, self-aware humor and a sophisticated, yet confined embodiment of tension.

I say it all the time! When I hear punk rock, I hear Oprah saying, “Oh honey, what’s wrong?!”. It is the perennial genre of frustration, and part of why I both love it and struggle to observe. Stress and self-loathing seem like such “stuck” emotions, and my site is all about the growth artists gain and offer through their music. I make this statement because Mourn might be the first punk-group to show me growth. Vocally dominated by Jazz Rodríguez Bueno and Carla Pérez Vas these two ladies sing their songs like they are kicking cans and smoking cigarettes on their work-break. Now I know this image may seem “off” and even insulting, but this image is the quintessential one of Millennial youth; gathering around outside, venting about the boss to friends, and lighting one up in loving memory to our university life. Thus, this image plays into your attraction to them. They laugh, waltz around the stage, and sing their songs as if their voices were literal, opening hatchets for stress relief. When Bueno and Vas sing, their harmonies feel buried like roots sprawling further and further into the dirt until they seem to weave in an under earth pair of wings. It is clear that Vas and Bueno are connected, and stare out into the audience as if they are two sisters about to tell the darkest story you have ever heard. FRANKLY, I LOVE IT! It is like a mixture between coolness and creepiness, which made their tracks such as, “Evil Dead” or.“Gertrudis, Get Through This” feel like the themes songs to The Shining; if it were a film based in a sophisticated university. This band has NO PROBLEM creating violent imagery to show how beaten they have been by life and others, yet their darkly toned melodies are just the bedding for a deeper issues: sadism.

Celebrating songs off their upcoming EP, Over The Wall, which included the best cover of The Replacement Color Me Impressed, Mourn show their music is about “growing up” and realizing how much ill you wish yourself. Something goes wrong, and we pray for a tornado to take us away, but let one actually come and we are praying for safety. What makes Mourn stand out is that they realize the hypocrisy of hating yourself. The truth is when life does not go your way, you could feel beyond ready to leave it, but Mourn, in ironic reference to their band name, ask you, “Do you really? Or do you just want to mourn your frustrations that you still want life even if it never goes your way? For More Information On Mourn Click Here. P.S. KUDOS TO THEIR PAINTED OUTFITS!