The Player Piano

Satellite (2007)

J. Welker

The whole `90s pop-punk/beard-punk resurgence as of late is a really awesome thing. Being a huge fan of bands like Hot Water Music and Jawbreaker, it's cool to see a community of younger bands take a liking to that scene, rise up and form new bands. But in the same breath, why have other genres NOT had the same afterglow?

I'm speaking more specifically about mathy stop/start jazz-rock. Not only is it my favorite genre (not even technically having its own name) but it's never had a proper community. Lucky enough, some bands fell in love with Mock Orange, American Football and Boys Life as much as I did and continue to make that sort of music in the wake of flavor-of-the-week lo-fi or other current trends.

Even more specifically, I'm speaking of the recent Japanese release of the Player Piano's 2002 effort, Satellite. These five boys from Utah created some of the most capable music rivaling American Football or Boys Life, even to this day.Although mostly instrumental, some of my favorite tracks are the ones with sporadic vocals near the middle or end of the songs, summoning up even more emotion than called for with their twinkling guitar back-and-forths.

This new Japanese re-release includes two unreleased tracks that weren't on the American version, so even if you somehow caught wind of this band when they were still around, there's more.

Even though this band is not currently active, just knowing that this existed and someone in Japan still likes it enough to re-press it makes me giddy as a school girl and confident in what the future may bring for this under-appreciated genre.