Review Summary: The band melds its experimental tendencies with snotty noise rock.
Given its participation in a Skin Graft records comp, you might expect USA Nails to sound radical in one way or another. On Life Cinema, the band melds its experimental tendencies with snotty noise rock.
The album's 12 short songs are the perfect blend of accessible and adventurous. On the more accessible side are four-on-the-floor stompers like "Smile," "Little Does He Know," and the title track.
On the other end of the spectrum are the album's most complicated songs, "Microphone" and "It's Ordinary." Depending on how you count it, “Microphone” is in 7/2 or 9/4 + 5/4, thanks to a chugging rhythm section that only emphasizes the first and tenth eighth-note of every measure. “It’s Ordinary” is in a strange 10/8 punctuated with dotted-sixteenth-note toms. Good luck tapping your foot to these songs.*
There's a middle ground between the album's most basic and most experimental tracks. Songs in this category might sound straightforward, but they have a twist: some extra beats in "A Fair Nickel," some extra phrases in "Man Act," a nearly atonal 6/4 guitar solo on top of a 4/4 groove in "A Sense Of Self Will Always Limit You."
But time-signature trickery alone is not enough to make music worth listening to. Luckily, rhythmic experimentation is one of Life Cinema's many redeeming qualities. The riffs are creative and infectious, the rhythm section is airtight, and the vocal performance oozes with expression and commitment.*
