War Of The Worlds is an interestingly executed split EP to say the least. What was a collaborative effort between Lagwagon vocalist Joey Cape’s side project Bad Astronaut and Jon Sondgrass’s alt-country band Armchair Martian, each band covered a selection of each other’s songs from their own discographies with a new collab thrown in mix. Though that isn’t the interesting thing about the War Of The Worlds split. What makes this split interesting is that unlike most artist splits which usually consist of nothing more than a collection of recordings from the artists, Joey Cape and Jon Sondgrass actually lend a hand in each other’s tracks. Providing backing vocals or performing duets in each other’s tracks that add a whole new layer of depth in contrast to their original tracks.
The chemistry between Joey and Jon is a powerful one for this split. Each artist complements each other diligently in their recreations. Joey Cape provides the higher register of notes and cleaner tune to the handful of Armchair Martian’s covers while Jon Sondgrass provides the gritty and gruff country power with their covers of Bad Astronaut. The way the two are able to play off of each other’s flaws while complementing their positives is essentially what makes War Of The Worlds an excellent split album. This is most prominent on the closing track and collab
17 Years. A powerfully driven track between all members of each group, each providing different guitar and basslines while Joey Cape and Jon Sondgrass take lighthearted stabs at each other with lines like
“How can you play the mess there that you made? The singer is the same, but I refrain” and
“Stories been told, the bass player's fat and old. And I feel the same, I still complain.”
The only problem that arises with
War Of The Worlds is that for those who have familiarized themselves with both group’s songs may not be pleased with all the results. While Bad Astronaut keeps their softer Lagwagon sound with a fine mix of synth textures and soft pianos with the backing foundation of their punk sound and Armchair Martian’s quirky mix of garbled synths and guitars do make the best out of
Acrophobe’s tracks some may find some of the directions the groups take their covers, or the lack thereof direction wise disappointing. While Bad Astronaut do keep their energy intact with their covers of
Jessica’s Suicide and
Crestfallen. Statler 2000 has a constant tendency to lose focus through it’s track. On the other side of the covers, Armchair Martian play their covers a little too safely, with the only notable differences between the original and the cover coming from the inclusion of new guitar lines and some introduction of synth breakdowns. Thankfully this is only a potential annoyance for fans who are familiarized with the original tracks and there is still enough energy from the groups performance for it to be written off completely. With
War Of The Worlds, Bad Astronaut and Armchair Martian succeed at capturing the essence of their partner group and presenting great covers for fans of either band to digest and to carry enough energy for those who aren’t as familiar with the groups to appreciate.
