Long Island tends to be overlooked by music fans of all strides and stripes. The main culprit is usually its proximity to the cultural behemoth of New York City. It’s a big place and it casts a long shadow. But, also, people are lazy and don’t know what’s good for them. Well, we’re about to fix that right now…
Not really. This is not going to be a ten-part series on the history of Long Island music. As cool as that might be, I’m not the guy to do it and that’s not actually what I want to talk about today. Instead, I’m going to be focusing just one Long Island band. One amongst many who should be on your radar, but I think you’ll agree these guys are pretty special and deserve the spotlight for the next four minutes of your day. Introducing: Stand Still.
Stand Still is an exceptionally tight melodic hardcore band, very much in the lane of Long Island forefathers Silent Majority, as well as more recent torchbearers Iron Chic. While they have the passion of the latter, and the chops of the former, Stand Still is able to define their own identity separate from their compatriates and influences. They’re not here to bask in another’s starlight. They are more than capable of generating their own affirmational glow.
Stand Still’s first full statement as a band is A Practice in Patience, a five-track EP that will likely take four or five complete spins in a row before you’ve wrung out all the satisfaction it has to offer for a single sitting. Confessions and scornful prose flow over wavey torrents of guitars like ink running off the pages of a poetry book that had been left out in the rain. Particularly compelling, are the upswinging, curling chords on the last track “Lockbox,” which feel like a barrage of boxing-club fitted fists that frontman Gerry has to dodge in order to deliver his weavey, shapeshifting intonations. As stalwarts of their local emo and hardcore scenes, the band are no strangers to battles, internal and external, and know how to assert themselves with confidence. Even when the forces aligned against them are those of their own mind and egos. Sometimes to become the champion for others, you have to slay the dragon within first.
Other notable highlights from this fantastic little release include the resonate clash of “The Cave” which builds towards a series of small rushing bypasses that the grooves flow into with enough urgency that you’d half imagine that the ceiling was about to collapse on them. “Id” has classic emo prickle to its guitar work and wounded melodramatic rebukes. And lastly, “Satellites” has a delightful spinning and of balance tilt to its melodies, that reminds as much of the weighty pop-punk of the Menzingers, as the razor lined tape-reel spin of The Movie Life, wherein each measure has the potential to cut to the bone before you have the chance to recoil from the obvious threat it presents. It’s a track that feels as fun as it does dangerous. But of course, the danger adds to the fun as well.
It is hard to make a good first impression, but on A Practice in Patience, Stand Still manages to do so fast and seemingly effortlessly. Copies of this thing are going to be flying off the shelves at distro. If you want a piece of the action, do not walk or wait for the bus- RUN!
Buy and stream A Practice in Patience below via Bandcamp:
Get a copy of A Practice in Patience on vinyl via New Morality Zine.
