La Dispute - The Rooms Of The House [256kbps] (2014) [Gorgatz]

La Dispute - The Rooms Of The House [256kbps] (2014) [Gorgatz]



- I N F O -

Michigan based quintet La Dispute have announced that they will release their third full-length, titled Rooms of the House, on March 17, 2014 via their newly established label, Better Living, in partnership with Big Scary Monsters Records. Born with a greater intention than to simply release La Dispute's own records, the band explains that their new label as "an outlet for creative expression, and as a way for both themselves and other artists to work together and give back to their respective communities. The label will operate in multiple forms of media; incorporating written, musical, and visual content, hoping to encourage collaboration between a variety of artists who are looking to impact their communities by supporting structures and organizations which are already making significant positive changes."

Rooms of the House was recorded and mixed by Will Yip at Studio 4 in Philadelphia, produced by Yip and La Dispute, and mastered at The Lodge by Emily Lazar. Alongside the new record, La Dispute have created a companion book that details the working process of writing and recording Rooms of the House as well as a special presentation of the album's lyrics. A portion of the proceeds from this record will go toward causes advancing and encouraging youth involvement in the arts and music, such as all-ages spaces, creative workshops, programming, and education.

To write for the new release, La Dispute retreated to a remote cabin in Michigan's upper peninsula with the hope that working together in a different environment would take them out of their comfort zone and enable them to create their strongest record yet. "The area where we were was pretty remote so we could focus on playing and not much else," bassist Adam Vass explains. "It was just the five of us working on writing every single day for a month and pretty much the entire album came out of those sessions."

To support the release of Rooms of the House, the band have announced a full UK and European tour that runs through April and May (all tour dates below). Joining La Dispute on these dates will be O' Brother

La Dispute is vocalist Jordan Dreyer, guitarists Kevin Whittemore and Chad Morgan-Sterenberg, bassist Adam Vass and drummer Brad Vander Lugt.

Maturation is a weird word. Plenty of artists playing decidedly immature music throw it around to make their newest compositions seem weightier, when in reality, they’re no different than the material they’ve been cranking out for years. La Dispute are different. One listen to their third full-length, the Will Yip-produced Rooms Of The House, and it’s clear they’ve continued to mature as songwriters and musicians since 2011’s incredible (and incredibly dense) Wildlife. Their early work—engaging in its own right—is almost laughable compared to how expertly these 11 songs have been crafted.

The best skill La Dispute have learned since their 2006 debut is how to self-edit. Rooms comes in at a relatively compact 41:41—just enough for a single LP, whereas their past two full-lengths have spanned four sides of vinyl each. The arrangements are tighter and more pointed, without losing any of frontman Jordan Dreyer’s lyrical laser focus. While La Dispute’s earlier material could easily be classified as traditional-screamo revival and Wildlife certainly took steps toward prog-rock and post-punk, Rooms is an amalgamation of all of the above and then some. “For Mayor In Splitsville,” the most conventionally structured song of the bunch, could be the band’s unique interpretation of the Hold Steady’s working-man’s bar-rock, were it not for Dreyer’s brutally heavy lyrics about a collapsing marriage. “HUDSONVILLE MI 1956” carries a strong sense of foreboding, with instruments deliberately cutting in and out, as Dreyer urges the listener to “stay calm.” “Woman (in mirror)” is a surprisingly straightforward, mellow ballad about going through “the motions of ordinary love” that could’ve come off the Van Pelt’s Sultans Of Sentiment (a reference none of you get but all of you should investigate), with hints of Radiohead and Modest Mouse sprinkled throughout.

Rooms Of The House is a success on all levels, but what puts it over the top of the rest of the band’s catalog is how effortlessly the album flows from track to track, adjusting for different moods as the stories Dreyer shares tap into a wide spectrum of feelings, from fear of the unknown (“First Reactions After Falling Through The Ice”) to coming to grips with your failures (“SCENES FROM HIGHWAYS 1981-2009”) to pure emotional exhaustion (“Objects In Space”). Considering he writes from a fictionalized perspective in a scene where the more honest you are about yourself and your shortcomings, the more people love your band (see: Touché Amoré), it’s incredible just how good Dreyer is at making you connect with his characters, and how equally good his band are at backing him up. There’s no question La Dispute are something special. Let’s not take them for granted.

Not many people make art for the sake of art anymore. In an age of dwindling attention spans and pop songs based on samples of what came before them, we need bands like La Dispute more than ever-and their third full-length Rooms Of The House is evidence of why.


The band-which features vocalist Jordan Dreyer, guitarists Kevin Whittemore and Chad Morgan-Sterenberg, bassist Adam Vass and drummer Brad Vander Lugt-began work on Rooms Of The House in April of 2013 by renting a cabin in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. "The area where we were was pretty remote so we could focus on playing and not much else," Vass explains. "It was just the five of us working on writing every single day for a month and pretty much the entire album came out of those sessions."

Rooms of the House was recorded and mixed by Will Yip at Studio 4 in Philadelphia, produced by Yip and La Dispute, and mastered at The Lodge by Emily Lazar.

Instores March 21 Rooms of the House, will be released on the bands newly established label, Better Living, licensed in Australia to Resist Records. Born with a greater intention than to simply release La Dispute's own records, the band explains that their new label as "an outlet for creative expression, and as a way for both themselves and other artists to work together and give back to their respective communities. The label will operate in multiple forms of media; incorporating written, musical, and visual content, hoping to encourage collaboration between a variety of artists who are looking to impact their communities by supporting structures and organizations which are already making significant positive changes."

To support the release of Rooms of the House, the band will be touring Australia this June. Joining La Dispute on all dates will be friends Balance And Composure.

- T R A C K L I S T -

01. HUDSONVILLE MI 1956
02. First Reactions After Falling Through the Ice
03. Woman (in mirror)
04. SCENES FROM HIGHWAYS 1981-2009 - 2009
05. For Mayor in Splitsville
06. 35
07. Stay Happy There
08. THE CHILD WE LOST 1963
09. Woman (reading)
10. Extraordinary Dinner Party
11. Objects in Space

Format: Mp3, CBR 256 kbps
Genre: Post-Hardcore
Size: 92.72 MB