#october drift

[bigfatmusicblog]

October Drift - Blame the Young ALBUM REVIEW

Growing up as I did in the mid-2000s we were a generation past MTV, the traditionally named MUSIC TELEVISION was going away from music, opting more for messy dramatic reality tv shows. It’s a cliche now to complain about how MTV doesn’t actually play music anymore - a subject usually left for boomers on Ultimate-Guitar messageboards. But the loss of music in MTV created a few other channels trying to capitalize on what MTV originally did. The biggest one to come out of that, at least for my money, is VH1. Now VH1 wasn’t the complete opposite of MTV, they maybe even had trashier reality tv at the time, however they had a program that me and thousands other got ready to every day - Jumpstart. 

I learned a ton of new music from Jumpstart, I’m lucky to have grown up in a time when alternative/indie rock still had a place on the mainstream charts, and I remember so vividly seeing the music videos for songs like ‘Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked’ by Cage the Elephant or ‘New Low’ by Middle Class Rut. This quite literally jumpstarted my love for bands that I still have love for to this day - I saw Cage the Elephant earlier this year and it was surreal seeing this song whose music video I have been watching for the last 13 years finally performed in front of me. Another huge song/moment for me when watching Jumpstart was the first time I saw the music video for “Sometime Around Midnight” by The Airborne Toxic Event - the quiet but steadily building indie rock, with the droning of the lead singer, all that matched with a bass player playing an electric bass with a fucking violin bow - this shit was awesome! And while there have definitely been bands before Airborne to make this specific type of music, this was my introduction to this new type of anthemic alternative rock. So fuck off, I don’t feel like doing more research on this, I’m gonna act like they just invented the genre.

So I’m gonna make an educated guess, based on no real fact other than how the music sounds, that October Drift had a very similar experience to me. Musically, from the very beginning, you can hear motifs and styles thick with that Airborne Toxic feeling. Blame the Young is the perfect way to start off this album, this title track does a great job at explaining the overall thesis behind the album coupled with the driving drum/bass beat. Finishing each verse with a version of “Blame the ____” it builds up dramatically through the song before culminating multiple times to instrumental breakdowns as the lead singer wails “Your best friend, you have/ oh, denial, denial” over it. The vocal performance in this song is very engaging, going from the low drone in the first verse, to the final verse basically being yelled with the same melody - it’s dope! 

The album continues with another one of my favorites on the album Demons. From the get go there is a real Killers vibe to it, with the drums and the guitar taking a backseat allowing the synth to take a simple but effective lead over it. Verses drop out to be quieter with just drums and guitar flares behind it before going into the pre-chorus, whose lyrics I love “Dressed in your ruin/sleep on a piece of broken heart” leading into the chorus and main request from the lead singer “Lay all your demons down on me.” This song is a fantastic follow-up to Blame the Young as it keeps the energy of it, while diving more into lyrics about personal relationships. This song and the next song Nothing Makes me Feel (The Way You Do) are both about different parts of emotionally abusive relationships. Demons paints the picture of a willful victim of an emotionally neglectful partner wanting to take on the burdens of their significant other no matter the cost, whereas Nothing Makes Me Feel is about staying with this emotionally neglectful person despite them constantly making you feel like shit. It’s this fun duality that connects the two.

Speaking of lyrics -  the lyrics on this album are fantastic. While some of them may be surface level, it’s still rife with metaphors - the best of which takes place on the song immediately following Nothing Makes me Feel, Wallflower. Talking about this song in general it starts off with a very fun production trick, placing the guitar in one headphone before the drums come in on both. Little things like that do a great job at making an album more interesting especially when without it the songs run a great risk of feeling too same-y. Lyrically, however, this song is about not being an active part in your own life. The term “wallflower” being a common descriptor of someone who goes to things like dances or concerts just to stand back against the wall, arms crossed. There is a common theme of apathy due to depression, something that none of us are able to control, which reinforces the idea of not being able to be an active part of your own life. 

We then bring the energy up again with Don’t Care - the shortest song on the album, that relies less on the beauty of the vocals and instrumentation, but instead moves at a breakneck speed with the lead singer wailing incomprehensibly over the chorus, the only real words squeaking out and understandable being the most important line of the song “I know you think I don’t care.” Next is Everybody Breaks - this song has an interesting beginning as it’s just vocals over a bass playing chords with the best of tones. Honestly, this whole album has fantastic bass tones, the grungy dirty distortion mixed with a compressor that brings out the real flavor of it, there’s so much of this album that’s just bass and drums. The guitar in general seems to not be of too much importance to the band, with it mainly being used to playing rhythm except when adding a little flair here and there. This song has another fantastic pre-chorus “Not waving but drowning, not waving but drowning/ and dragging you down, holding you down” creating this imagery of flailing arms in the middle of the ocean. Grasping on to whatever you can, you inadvertently drag whoever is out there with you. This is all before the self admission at the end of the chorus “I’m never gonna get it right,” which they repeat over the bridge leading to a big version of the pre-chorus with some of the lyrics changed, then going half-time into the final chorus making it big and dramatic. Great moves on all accounts, from production to songwriting, on that last little bit.

Borderline helps get the energy up again after Everybody Breaks using that ever popular “dun, dun dun” drum beat that always reminds me of a wedding for some reason? They go faster in the verses before going back to the slower “dun, dun dun” during the choruses. Paired with epic single strums, the chorus gets very dramatic - although I will say I am so tired of this “borderline” cliche that’s been in music forever. What borderline? Are you a coyote? Is she underage? I lived right by a border my entire life and never once asked someone to meet me “over the borderline” Genuinely, what the fuck does that mean? 

Then is the cleverly titled Tyrannosaurus Wreck - one of the other singles on this album. You can tell from the get go that this was written to be a single. It has a fun driving beat, with a simple chorus (“I’m a tyyyyyyy-rannosaurus”) that’s easy to sing along to with a fun ending singing “the ends are all coming apart” as the guitar purposely goes outside of the standard chord progression to create the feeling of coming apart. This also has the closest thing to a guitar solo that I’ve heard on this whole album - so yeah, single material all around. The only unnecessary thing is the literally 30 seconds of noise that plays after the song. So ridiculous, what’s the point, eh? 

Following that is probably my favorite song on the album Hollow which once again starts off with a bass heavy riff, drums and vocals, before adding extra distortion on the guitar for the dramatic chorus, repeating “you keep falling away/but I don’t wanna get you down/just like I do.” There is syncopation with the guitar and drums on the “you keep falling away” that just adds to the drama of the chorus and makes it fun to bang your head to. There is a quiet bridge where he continues to say the previous statement “just like I do” before going LOUD LOUD into the chorus again with another “guitar solo” (an interesting one, sounded almost like a theramin?). Oftentimes this album has gone from quiet to loud in the matter of seconds, I think this song has my favorite version of this from the bridge to the huge chorus. Just the quick disorienting clip on the guitar with “YOU KEEP FALLING AWAY” to bring them back into it, ahhh, chefs kiss, I love it.

Then is Heal, to me the most boring part of the album. It starts off with an irregular drum beat that’s probably in some time signature I’m too stupid to understand. It definitely catches your ears off the bat, especially as the guitar starts to play 4/4 over it and it works but still sounds slightly off? Definitely interesting musically, but this song otherwise doesn’t do anything for me, and I wonder why the decision was made to keep it on the album. I mean the album is 11 songs whereas a common length for an indie record like this is a clean round 10 songs, so there had to be intention to put this song on it - as this was the first song I would cut if I had to make it only 10 songs. I understand it’s probably very personal to the lead singer, but I think that’s maybe the only reason it ended up on this otherwise exciting album.

Rounding it all out is the final song on the album “Not Running Anymore” - the only explicit song on the album. Starts off again with a bass heavy rhythm section, the bass player on this band is fucking good, regularly opting to play chords as opposed to lead or standard note based rhythm based, it creates a much fuller sound. The initial chorus being just bass, violin, and vocals is beautiful before getting loud on the second verse. This album greatly benefits from having a fantastic opening song and finale song, both of which take their place and does their job perfectly. You couldn’t put this anywhere else on this album other than last and truly they saved on of the best on this album for last.

Overall: A good solid alternative/indie rock record. If you were disappointed with Airborne Toxic Event’s 2024 release like I was, I would definitely give this album a spin. It reminds me so much about what I loved with their previous releases, all the while putting their own personal touches on it to make it interesting. Really happy to have found this band, can’t wait to see what else they have in store. Some good old fashioned indie rock, good for the people, good for the culture, we love to see it.

Grade: B (B+ without Heal on it truthfully) Favorite Songs: Hollow and Blame the Young

[disastergiirl]

october drift « cabaret voltaire, edinburgh (april, 2025)

[fotografian]

October Drift VooDoo 2024

[musicftmisfits]

Live: October Drift delivered great night at Rotown, Rotterdam

October Drift, the band with one of the best live reputations, made their return to Rotterdam's Rotown. This week they returned for their own headline as part of the 'Blame The Young' album tour!

[songspiral]

"Wallflower" by October Drift

[findasongblog]

Find A Song that is a pensive anthem for the introverted

October Drift - Wallflower

‘Wallflower’ is a pensive anthem for the introverted, capturing the delicate and often overwhelming feelings of isolation. It is a poignant tribute to those who find comfort in solitude, even when it feels like the world is slipping away. The new video captures this with frontman and guitarist Kiran Roy skating alone through a bleak industrial setting and finding joy in his desolate surroundings.   Regarding the single Kiran says, “I guess the theme of being a wallflower, and of being the quiet observer, reflects the time I was writing the song, which was during lockdown. The ‘wallflower’ is watching from the wings and seeing the ugliness of the world and choosing not to engage. It reflects seeing altercations but not doing anything to intervene or being in a social situation where you can’t relate to anyone there.”

Added to FAS Spotify playlist alt rock.

[2solesmusica]

October Drift: La Banda Británica que Conquista Escenarios

[sonicziggy]

"Tyrannosaurus Wreck" by October Drift https://ift.tt/tXeg38c

[bdpst24]

Új albumával érkezik hozzánk az October Drift

Új albumával érkezik hozzánk az October Drift

Ujjal mutogatnak a fiatalokra  A szeptemberben megjelenő Blame The Young lemezt hozzák el első önálló koncertjük keretében Budapestre. 2018-ban az Editors vendégeként járt nálunk az alternatív indie rock zenekar, akkor a teltházas Barba Negra közönségének mutathatták meg zenéjüket. Az akkor még csak két kislemezzel rendelkező banda most, hat évvel később tér vissza hozzánk, hogy bemutassa…

[theridgebeyond]

there hasn’t been a dracula daily update in days and I am so stressed rn

[disastergiirl]

october drift « cabaret voltaire, edinburgh (april, 2025)

[bryan360]

“🎈🦫The Drifting”

🦫Bucky: Ah, man….This is what I get for trying to capture these balloon shaped ghost types. It was all bad karma for me unless I can land safely soon enough. Though for now it looks I’m “drifting off again.” Huh? No wonder it felt like being a Team Rocket member. 🙄 Well almost.

Bucky (as a Team Rocket member) created by me; BryanVelasquez87 (Bryan360)

Driftloons - Pokémon franchise (1996-present) created by Satoshi Tajiri; Nintendo, Creatures, and Game Freak

Previously: ⬇️

“⬛️⬜️🪦The Grave” - Link Here #1

“🦝🦝The Raccoons” - Link Here #2

“🐿️💕❄️The Climbers” -Link Here #3

“🐱🎸🐶 The Guitarist” - Link Here #4

“🐰👮The Cops” - Link Here #5

“🐶🏴‍☠️👑The Joy” - Link Here #6

“🦔🦊💍The Rings” - Link Here #7

“🦦🐟The Fish” - Link Here #8

“🐱👢🌙 The Cuteness” - Link Here #9

“🎧🦨 The Beats” - Link Here #10

“🔴🐼🐶 The Dogs” - Link Here #11

”🐿️🐰🎸The Band” - Link Here #12

“🦊🔵 The Tallest” - Link Here #13

“🌳😟 The Hunted” - Link Here #14

“🤗❤️ The Hugging” - Link Here #15

“🐭🐩🎞️The Classics” - Link Here #16

“🐷🍫The Chase” - Link Here #17

Tagged: @murumokirby360 @shadowredfeline@alexander1301 @shadowredfeline@sammirthebear2k4 

[pyrasterran]

#Inktober #OCtober

Day 2: Daegre, a mysterious, unstoppable monster from beyond Jupiter whose appearance and trajectory towards Earth spreads panic across the system. It is the catalyst of Sanari’s journey to find and reunite the Titan Triad.

[findasongblog]

Find A Song making light of quite heavy themes

October Drift - Tyrannosaurus Wreck

The song mixes refreshing dark humour with soaring alt rock energy and reflects the challenges of relationships in the unstable world of music.    “It’s about a relationship breakdown and the balance of life within this band and life outside of it,” says frontman and guitarist Kiran Roy. “It’s like saying I'm a huge fucking disaster. It’s kind of silly, it has a tragic sort of self-awareness, making light of quite heavy themes.”   The charming video continues to poke fun at these themes and features Kiran in full dinosaur costume isolated in smalltown England.   Continuing about the video Kiran says, “I thought it would be a cool concept but I’d pictured it being an actor or someone else in the dinosaur suit. I’m not sure how they did it but the band somehow convinced me to put on the dino suit and drag myself through a little southwest town with the guys filming me.   It was a super hot day so it was hard work in the onesie, but I just had to keep reminding myself it was better than shooting the video for our single ‘Waltzer’ when I had water poured over my head for the entire thing at early morning sunrise. The ‘Tyrannosaurus Wreck’ video is kind of silly, but that suits the whole song, both kind of make light of a tragedy.”

Added to FAS Spotify playlist alt rock.

[imepix]

day 9: childhood video game! ft me irl in sonic drift cus 3 year old me thought this was peak racing game