Bearings / Pswingset
Split [7-inch] (2010)
Brian Shultz
Before Bearings unleash their Expire.Exist full-length, they've tided the time with this really solid split 7" featuring Pswingset.
Bearings is yet another band in a swelling scene of PA bands with Small Brown Bike fetishes, but purveyed with such a fervent and destructively emotional core that it hits home well. If our stream of Exist.Expire is any indication, this is a fuller, bolder and meatier recording of "Tenement" than on the album. It's a cathartic four minutes that reside somewhere between Dead Reckoning and The River Bed. The vocals are a little youthful sounding and snotty for this style of burning, lightly aggressive post-hardcore, but it just helps gives things a fresh spin.
Pswingset's contributions are just as good, though. Oddly, the band's from Ohio but they remind me of more recent UK emo revival bands like Puzzle or Pictures Paint Words, since this is scrappy '90s-style emo recorded raw, a mix of jangly and jagged guitar pop for "Young Republicans Be Free" and a slower and more emotionally desperate but nonetheless paced vibe for "Here Comes Rolling." There's definitely some hints of pre-Very Emergency Promise Ring in here, too.