The Upsides - Triathlon EP

The Upsides

Triathlon EP
self-released; 2015

3.0 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

The Upsides, consisting of Alec Chen (vocals, guitar), Daniel Hornett (guitar, backing vocals), Michael Morelli (drums, backing vocals) and Tyler Piehl (vocals, bass), is a four-piece band that recently released a four-song EP entitled Triathlon. I’ll get to the point quickly that the band has some decent ideas but are going to have to do something about the quality of their recording quality.

The band kicks things off with “So Saccharine” in which the instruments have zero separation and end up sounding like a blanket of white noise. It’s a decent if predictable punk song but the recording quality makes it unlistenable.

The second track “Untitled is a Title” starts with a lone guitar. Out of nowhere the lead singer belts out a melody that is completely off-key and grating. The song becomes listenable as it progresses. More instrumentation is added and the band's best moment comes at about the three-minute mark.

“Chautauqua” contains buried indistinguishable vocals and is in desperate need of compression. Out of the three songs this one had the most potential but still fell short because of the recording quality. Far and away the best sounding track is “Hand in Hand.” The recording quality is at least that of the demo and demonstrates why the band has some potential.

Luckily the band is in the embryonic stage but still have a lot of things to do in order to compete with some of today's best music. The vocalist is often hitting wrong notes and his tone isn’t exactly flattering with. He often sounds drunk and unfocused while he sings but occasionally shows promise. The music itself doesn’t display many original aspects but hopefully the band will improve with the next release.

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