The Mall

MySpace (listen to "A Dead Science," "Favorite Past")
Official site
Hometown: San Francisco
Next local show: 11/18, Mezzanine
Recent release: Emergency at the Everyday, 2006

Mall-punk it ain't: The Mall play a hyper, condensed mix of noise, prog, and math-rock. Emergency at the Everyday, their debut full-length, is never particularly easy on the ears, but it can be a lot of fun. Ellery Samson’s vocals (and screams) are distorted and distant, as if filtered through ten feet of chicken wire and razor blades (actually he sang through an old rotary telephone hooked up to a PA.). Above him, uneasy rhythms crash and destruct as keyboards (Daniel Tierney) and drums (Adam Cimino) continually piece them back together. The tension between accessible melodies and the persistent element of noise makes the record what it is -- simultaneously grating and irresistible. (more >>)

At 1:51, "Advantage Out" is the third-longest song on Emergency at the Everyday. The longest is the drawn-out untitled closer, which clocks a full two-and-a-quarter minutes. That oughta tell you something: the Mall don't write "songs" so much as choppy segments of a whole. One-to-two-minute noise/math-rock blasts don't exactly get the chance to spread their wings. Instead, the Mall layer keyboards on top of drums on top of guitars on top of vocals on top of noise, then chop it all up. Whether you find the noise too harsh, the synthesized swells too sweet, or perhaps all in perfect balance, you won’t have long to dwell on it. The entire record clocks in under 20 minutes, but that’s 20 minutes with the staying power of 40 -– you’ll have to listen again to get a better hold on what the Mall is doing and to enjoy the thrill of discovery.

SHOPPING SPREE:
-The Mall's first EP, First, Before, and Never Again came out earlier this year on Mt. St. Mtn.
-The group will be performing its first local show in a month on 11/18 at Mezzanine in SF. Headlining is the Slits, an influential female UK punk group that opened for the Clash back in '77 and returned this year with its first new material in 25 years.
-The Mall is currently wrapping up its first-ever US tour, during which it visited far-off lands like Texas, Alabama, and Maryland, and played a CMJ showcase in NYC with the Slits and the Plot to Blow up the Eiffel Tower.