Dryvetyme Onlyne

Scream Hello
Everything is Always Still Happening
Red Leader Records; 2008

Guest Contributor: Marc Brubaker

Once in a while, when one lives in suburbia, a band consisting of close friends comes along and dominates the local scene. Their shows are like parties, where everyone knows everyone, the venue is packed, and goodwill abounds. They are not only the band that everyone likes, for whatever reason, but also the band that everyone believes in with the confidence that they can “go somewhere.” Scream Hello comes across as this type of band: full of promise and potential.

For many bands of this nature, making that last leap from the small pond of home is the most difficult step in their existence. Plenty of talented bands have slipped through the cracks into the abyss of the forgotten, due to bad blood between bandmates, a lack of vision, or a poor sense of identity. Unfortunately, Scream Hello seems to be suffering from the latter.

With their latest album, Everything is Always Still Happening, Scream Hello puts their best foot forward, launching forth with a strong track full of pop-heavy riffs and vocals reminiscent of Waking Ashland. While James Caverly’s lyrics can be difficult to decipher in certain moments, he utilizes his vocal ability well to create some well-crafted pop songs built upon some great riffs and hooks.

As the album progresses, however, the disorganization that plagues Scream Hello becomes very apparent. After two fairly put together pop songs, the band throws in a curveball with the third track, “Business Ethics” – a bizarre, fifty second track that consists of thirty seconds of ripping hardcore riffs and vocals surrounded by a ragtime piano sample. The album then proceeds to flip back and forth between pop-laden rock songs with catchy riffs to slamming, hardcore songs full of gruffly screamed vocals.

A few of the better tracks suffer from being stretched out too far, filled with wasted moments of rambling progressions that don’t go anywhere and merely fill space. “We Don’t Exist” seems to be a manifestation of the whole album in one song – rambling, disorganized, and suffering from an identity crisis, but best in its short, focused, pop-rooted moments.

As the last chords fade off into oblivion, it is evident that Scream Hello certainly is at their best when they stay focused, capable of producing good, quality rock songs full of catchy guitar hooks and pop melodies. Hopefully they can realize this and not fret their time away making confused, chaotic albums. In the closing track, “20, 21” Caverly’s voice soars as he sings, “We all want an adventure with meaning / So go and get it, if you want it / It’s there, it’s there, it’s there!” His words echo in eerie premonition, because it is there – Scream Hello merely needs to go out and get it, if they want it.

Marc Brubaker is a graduate of Texas A&M University; he currently works as a photographer, curator, and barista extraordinaire who occasionally uses his Creative Writing degree. You can find his work at Click. Wind. Repeat. or find him behind the counter of Taft Street Coffee in Houston, TX.