Chung Antique performing "Baking Brad" at Seattle's own Hollow Earth Radio last year
It's not easy to find good instrumental music. Maybe it's because it's easier to hit an emotive target when it's quite literally spelled out for the listener (insert analogy about how the standard, 3 min and 40 second, auto-tuned love song is like bowling with the bumpers up), or because our cultural love of multi-tasking has atrophied our ability to pay attention to anything more than clever one-liners. Whatever the reason, when an artist is able to connect, to write songs whose arrangements stand strong without any crutches, it's a marvelous thing.
Chung Antique is one of those bands. The threesome, consisting of Mike Bernatovicz (bass), Charlie Zaillian (guitar) and Whitney Bingham (Drums), formed at Evergreen State in 2009. Strangely, after following up their early demos and singles with a proper LP, 2011's GO POETRY!, they seem to have remained quiet for the past year. However, the last thing they did post on their bandcamp site was this wonderful live EP at Olympia's Blue House (stream below). With regard to their sound, they've tagged this release as "progressive" "instrumental" "punk", and I think that's pretty fair. I also hear some math rock and post-rock/post-hardcore influences.
Take a listen, and if you like what you hear you can see them tonight (2/24) at the Heartland Gallery along with Chemical Clock and SSRIS.
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