Joe Stanton
Conor Maloney (bass), Jim Goodrich Ryan (front, drums), Carson Bell (back, vocals), Stuart Benjamin (guitar).
Meat Jelly continues to blur the lines between blues rock and hardcore punk on their new single release, out March 18, “Harvesting Season” / “Chuck Downfield.” Releasing on Bandcamp and 7-inch vinyl, the songs develop the jarring blend the band — which is split between Madison and Stevens Point — honed across live albums and last year’s Nevermind the Sandra Bullocks, Here’s the Blind Side.
The lead song “Harvesting Season” is crisp and melodically focused. Lead singer Carson Bell broods on intoxication and finding new happiness in a relationship in tormented harmonies. He belts out, “Everyone seems to know what’s best for me, except for me.” After the song falls back into the pretty guitar lead, the lyrics repeat in a mournful scream, as inner conflicts both resolve and escalate.
“Building an iceberg out of the things I intake,” Bell sings, connecting stagnancy to stability. The instrumental release of this build-up happens just as the singer gestures toward happiness based in other people, away from consumption.
“It’s about being patient and not self-sabotaging through drug use and insecurities,” Bell tells Isthmus. “The way those problems manifest when you actually find yourself happy for once is pretty wild and not talked about much, in my opinion."
Meat Jelly’s discordant shifts between styles and moods highlights the band’s versatility, and this approach is apparent on the two songs.
“Chuck Downfield” — which also includes a video released today by Isthmus — smashes a raunchy, fast-paced blues riff together with a classic hardcore punk breakdown. The brief silences between segments jut against fierce screaming. The song — named for a Backyard Sports video-game color commentator — isn’t exactly seamless. It’s not supposed to be. The abrupt but well-executed about-face demands your attention.
While the last EP used songs guitar player Stuart Benjamin wrote in other projects, Meat Jelly’s forthcoming full-length features more songwriting and collaborations between members, with Conor Moloney contributing bass and Jamie Goodrich-Ryan on drums.
“Both ‘Harvesting Season’ and ‘Chuck Downfield’ represent the outer reaches of the sounds we’re moving towards,” says Benjamin. “The other songs will fall somewhere in between.”
