Bands like Buildings make genre identification a near-pointless exercise. There’s no discernible song structure to a Buildings song, but yet they seem too well constructed to be the loose jams. Some of their guitar rhythms have the intensity of post-rock instrumental bands the but unlike post-rock, Buildings doesn’t ease you in. The first notes on their EP Endless come quickly and the drums add another dimension of speed, racking your brain before the tempo drops. The songs twist and turn but never seem to meander pointlessly and while there might be hints of familiarity in the melodies (there are hints of everything from Bach to Tortoise) this doesn’t sound like anyone else. Furthermore, the psychedelic projections they use during their live sets add another level of intensity to an already impressive sonic experience. So, we’ll dispense with attempts at labeling and just keep it simple: Buildings is amazing.
We talked with guitarist Collin Crowe about the songwriting process, the band’s visual element and the crazy fifteen-person project planned for tonight’s sold out show at DC9 with Lightning Bolt.
Find them online: http://www.myspace.com/buildingsdc
Buy their music: On iTunes.
See them next: Tonight at DC9 opening for Lightning Bolt.
How long has Buildings been around?
With this consistent lineup, maybe a year and a half or two years. But I’ve been playing music with David for awhile and we intended to be in a band called Buildings. We were trying out lots of different lineups and it didn’t really work out until about December of 2008. I think that’s when we got Nick to play bass for us. So then it was kind of a sealed deal. We were playing with other people. We didn’t really play a lot of shows with other people but Nick was the first guy where we thought, “Okay, this guy is irreplaceable” because he has such a weird way of playing bass and it kind of became what we sound like, but if he quit, it’d be like, “Fuck, no one else can play his parts like that.” So, he’s irreplaceable. David drums like crazy: he’s irreplaceable, too.
When did you add Aaron [Leitko] into the lineup?
We’ve done three shows with him. The past three shows we’ve played. Big Bear, the Cherch and Rock and Roll Hotel. But I’ve been meaning to play music with Aaron for a long time. I used to be in a band called Sedtai and we kept losing bassists and our bass parts then were really easy and Aaron was always interested but then we kept being like, “Oh, but this other guy wants to join. We’ll go with that other guy.” But it’s really cool finally playing with him. He’s a really chill dude. He knows what he’s doing.
