Nightmares For A Week / Banquets – Split

Nightmares For A Week has risen its profile by pairing up with a couple different bands for a number of different splits between full lengths.  While the trio had been around significantly longer than when they released their Nightmares Split with Nightmares Of You, the bands with similar names gimmick releasing a split for Halloween that as nothing to do with Halloween was a stroke of genius.  It was just the sort of publicity stunt that would get the band noticed in time for their Civilian War LP the following spring. 

But how do you stay relevant in between releases?  By releasing a split with another band currently riding high off of a critically acclaimed album and then upstaging them of course!  This time around Nightmares For A Week has teamed up with Jersey City’s Banquets for a fairly thorough ten-track offering deserving of a listen by fans of both parties.

Nightmares For A Week take the first side – and what a side it is.  The band takes no time showcasing its full breadth of sound.  From the anthemic, mid-tempo punk rock rollout of “Canadian Tuxedo” to the campfire acoustic callout of early Attack In Black inspired folk-punk piece “Dead Will Stay,” Nightmares For A Week’s talent runs vast.  Most pop-punk bands out there would kill to write a lead single as hook laden and respectably catchy as “Bleached Blonde,” but Nightmares For A Week just throws it into the mix as one of many.  “Up To The Mountain Heights” reaches a similar altitude in the folk-punk camp with inviting “oooahs” permeating the clouds and encouraging listeners to join in, while “Boiceville Inn” concludes and grounds their side with an earthy acoustic instrumental, strings-only approach.  That all five tracks come across so familiar but stylistically distinct speaks to Nightmares For A Week’s comfort level as musicians.  This is a band that makes music look easy.

The flipside features a quartet that has received substantial press over the past year; particularly for their critically acclaimed self titled full length.  Banquets play a significant brand of punk rock along the lines of a more reckless vocal incarnation of Tales Don’t Tell Themselves-era Funeral For A Friend.  The band has a distinct style of tightly bound riffs and searing chorus lines that shine through on standouts “My Mopped Year” and “The Engineer,” but that can get caught up in the routinely polished production.  Banquets biggest fault on their side is that they hold rather than push the line, making five familiar tracks that still need to overcome the band’s tendency for songs like “Matters” to disappear in the mix and blend in comfortably with their neighbor.  They’re all great songs, but the side feels “thin” coming off the first.

Having listened to Nightmares For A Week’s side about double that of Banquets, the Kingston, New York trio has clearly grabbed my ear over that of their partners in crime.  Both sides of this well envisioned split shine brightly, one just shines brighter than the other.  As an interim release for each artist though, the ten-song split should more than satisfy the appetite of fans of these up and coming artists.