Local Band 'Destroy This Place' Is More Sensible than Destructive

The phrase "destroy this place" wouldn't normally conjure a sense of surety, savvy or a kind of stability.

It happens to be the name – and part of the philosophy – of a band that is "new" only in the same vague sense that their "first show" occurred just as recently as last year's Ferndale DIY Street Fair.

Destroy This Place is the alignment of a few seasoned music vets who aren't trying to fit into any new fad, not trying to rub elbows in any scene, not trying to get out and tour and not trying to reinvent the wheel.

Ferndale resident saw his band the power pop trio, the Friendly Foes, splintering in early 2010. He still wanted to continue playing music with Foes drummer Sean Sommer (also of the Ferndale-based The Cold Wave). It happened that Allen's longtime friend, John Nelson, saw his own venerable metro-area noise-pop band New Grenada (with bassist Monday Busque) coming to an end at the same time.

Two halves of two respective bands, both of considerable local renown – and substantial, intertwining resumes – found that forging together just made sense. Finally getting together after having played with or, at the very least, having hung out with each other for years, just made sense. Then to sit down and work extensively on an album, well, just made sense.

Said album, Resurrect the Mammoth, will be released June 3 at the Lager House in Detroit.

As for the band name, Destroy This Place? It sounds like a senseless battle cry from some upstart basement anarchist. But these four seem to be the antithesis of senseless. Perhaps one could indulge the cliché: "They've been there, done that." But, simply, this is what happens when musicians mature.

"What we're doing is just natural," Nelson said. "There's some bands that just try to fit whatever's current at the time and I don't think we do that at all.

"We might sound sorta '90s or even '80s and we sound more throwback then we do current. We're playing rock songs, but we're also doing what's true to us, we're not forcing anything."

Now then, to harp on all their steadier and sober qualities – dudes in their 30s, with families or future families and full times jobs – would be a disservice to their considerably imposing, declarative and gritty sound.  

It brings a marrowy, blunt bolstering and gravelly haymaker's sledge swing to a subtly hinted pop sensibility. The guitars are crunchy and grimy, the drums are pounding, the bass throws body checks and the vocals are belted with ardor; it's aggressive and, yes, heavy, but compacted into 2 1/2-minute kickers that exhort the primal, almost sinister sneered fun of rock 'n' roll.

Destroy This Place takes you back to the glory days of early '90s indie-rock, with ears that flex a penchant for happy and hazy '70s AM pop and early '80s metal. There's confidence and commitment, Allen said, for a group that gets together to write and rehearse after work, after the kids are in bed and who don't need to go out to the bar and rub elbows or to be seen.

"We're a little bit older," Sommer said, "and we thought maybe people would be looking at us that way, so (with the band name), we kinda wanted to come out with a middle finger and have the sound back it up."

Allen added: "The heaviness comes in the form of, just, energy and maybe that spark to really want to kick the doors down a little harder than we have in other bands."

At 35, bassist Busque is a father of two. He said knows there's a whisper of anxiety that the kids might see aging hipsters on a stage, but it's no bother. "I'm not hiding who I am," said Busque. "I'm still playing relevant music, stuff that's important and catchy, but smart. It's not stuff that's rehashing or where I'm trying to be a 30-year-old wearing clothes from Hot Topic. I can still kick your ass and I can still play."

"Part of that," Sommer adds, "is that we are all very secure in the reasons that we're in this band. We don't have any delusions."

As for the new album, Allen said the songs are kept short and trim.

"We didn't put any extra-anything on Resurrect the Mammoth," Allen said. "Songs are short and they're punchy; you don't need a mellotron or a vibraphone or a saxophone in there if it doesn't need it. It's like our live show."

As the four of them chime in, charting out Destroy This Place's progression, the conversation is dotted with a handful of reflections varying on similar phrases of "maybe we did that before" or "maybe we felt that way before" with the tacit implication of learning from one's youthful foolhardiness.

Moving forward, you hear: "But not now. Not with this band."

Resurrect the Mammoth will be released June 3 at the Lager House  in Detroit. Pewter Cub and End Trails open for Destroy This Place. Find Resurrect the Mammoth on Bellyache Records.

Check out other music thoughts from Jeff Milo on his blog Deep Cutz.