“At times I've shouted out unprovoked, at the world and you, just to see if the people around me react.
Sometimes I think they're all acting - at times I'm scared that I'm acting too.”La Dispute is an emo/post-hardcore/experimental rock band from Grand Rapids, Michigan, formed in 2004 and one of the most influential bands in the so-called “new wave” of hardcore music. The group is comprised of vocalist Jordan Dreyer (front center), guitarist Chad Morgan-Sterenberg (left), bassist Adam Vass (back center), and drummer Brad Vander Lugt (right). Founding member and former guitarist Kevin Whittemore is also featured on every release of the group so far, but left them last month to pursue guitar manufacturing.
La Dispute’s music is best characterized by Dreyer’s emotional deliveries that often border on or are primarily spoken-word. Shouting is common, though he rarely ever expands into a shrill scream or anything of the like. His vocals will probably be the deciding factor whether you like the rest of the group or not, and I’ll admit that they are an acquired taste (especially in their earlier work), but give them time and they’ll (almost) surely grow on you. It shouldn’t be written off on sound alone, seeing as Dreyer’s lyricism is some of the most evocative and poignant ever penned. Their earliest work is mostly relationship-based, with their hit debut
Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair being loosely based on
an old Asian folktale and spawning a somewhat false image that the group is all tears ‘bout the ladies all the time (although yes, someone made the
La Dispute drinking game. Take that as you will).
Somewhere's lyricism is still beautiful stuff, even if a little more self-centered and dragged out, and it’s easily their most interesting and dynamic album instrumentally, spawning hardcore classics like
“Said The King To The River” and epic
“The Last Lost Continent” while also infusing traces of blues music and progressive rock into the sound.
Following that were 2011’s
Wildlife and 2014’s
Rooms of the House. The former sees La Dispute focus more on different topics and give the instruments the job of propelling forward Dreyer’s deliveries, this time about more pressing problems like their experiences with
Michigan’s notorious post-manufacturing poverty and joblessness and
tragic anecdotes of untimely death. Their most popular song and most common live setlist-ender is another epic -
“King Park” –
based on a true story of an innocent child killed by gang violence and the subsequent guilty suicide of the killer. It’s heavy stuff, and
Wildlife presents many amazingly depressing stories with the musical poise you wouldn’t expect from a band with as short a lifespan as La Dispute.
Rooms of the House, which came out about 2 months ago, is another album entirely. Whereas
Wildlife unfortunately felt instrumentally constrained on its weaker tracks,
Rooms purposefully branches out in sound, and instead of completely being based on true events mostly revolves around fictional but no less-powerful
accounts of failing marriage, and
how memories can often change the significance of objects or times, misrepresenting them in your mind as better than they actually were, all while throwing in
frenzied context of real historical events. While the flow is more scattered on
Rooms than on previous albums, Dreyer’s vocal style greatly diversified and the album features some of their
more accessible work.In addition to their albums, La Dispute has also released material on plenty of splits and has what they've dubbed the
Here, Hear series: a set of EPs with calmer instrumentation and poetic readings from good ol' Dreyer. It remains unclear whether or not it will continue, as the series' most progressive material doesn't sound all that different than some of their album material at this point, but it's worth checking out if you want a dose of less aggressive music or to hear La Dispute's collected side. I particularly recommend the track
"Eight".So if you hadn’t gathered by now, yes, La Dispute’s music is sad but intense, emotional but not illogical, and touching without trying too hard. If you’re in the mood for some feels or even just enjoy some damn impressive poetry put to music, this is the kind of thing that may be up your alley.
Discography:
Albums:
Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair - 2008
Wildlife - 2011
Rooms of the House - 2014
Here, Hear series:
Here, Hear I - 2008
Here, Hear II - 2008
Here, Hear III - 2009
Others:
Vancouver - 2006 (EP)
Untitled - 2008 (7")
Searching for a Pulse/The Worth of the World - 2010 (split with Touché Amoré)
Never Come Undone - 2011 (split with Koji)
Conversations - 2012 (track-by-track commentary about
Wildlife)
Enjoy it, darling.
