Houston We Have A Problem was the first ("real") "screamo" band I ever encountered and even though I would begin listening to this 2006 release, 'Shipwreck' mostly for the edgy post rock crescendos and texture it featured, I would eventually, over time, come back to it for the way that they blended the vocals and screaming into such an emotional atmosphere. Sometimes screaming is just another instrument, sometimes it's a cry for help. Houston We Have A Problem successfully used both to their advantage. And by successfully, I mean pretty freakin' well.
Apart from manipulating the post rock to screamo, slow to choatic approach like that of City of Caterpillar and/or Men of Trees, Houston We Have A Problem (especially on 'Shipwreck') used extensive samples (obviously a big interest of mine) that open the songs up like story books and accent their instrumental work that overlaps the words. And as the album name as well as the song titles "Poseidon, Angered", "Titanic, The First Victim", "Calm Seas Become the Squall", or "Valdez, Drunk Driving is Punishable on Water Also" suggest, this is a maritime themed (and maybe conceptive) release. That may not be as cool to you as it is to me but I live for this kind of stuff. It's in my blood. The conversations and words that were sampled in this album, self-released by the way, don't seem like they are sea themed as the rest of the album tends to lead you on about, but are actually mostly from a movie called, 'The Legend of 1900' that not only deals with life at sea but also the music of the time after World War II. I have yet to see this film but from what I know about it, it sounds right up my alley.
Also, one of the coolest parts about the screaming that goes on in this album is that it isn't just one guy screaming his brains out non-stop, but the whole band, and with the whole band on vocal duties, it makes for quite the listen. Most notably due to all the different shrills and yelps that each member of this four piece brought to this recording... a recording that surely has some of the most original yelling I have ever heard, hands down.
Houston We Have A Problem has since broken up, but not without releasing three self produced albums (The Sky Did Not Crack and the Stars Did Not Fall, Punk is Dead, and Shipwreck). After calling it quits, some members went on to form Who Goes There? and the others went on to form Perfect Future. If you're liking what you are hearing from HWHAP, I definitely suggest you go check those bands out as well. There's not a lot of ways to listen to them but hey, this is 2012, kid... you'll figure it out.
Similar acts/sounds: City of Caterpillar, Gospel, Circle Takes the Square, Envy, Who Goes There?, Perfect Future, Men As Trees/Locktender, I Create, The Caution Children, We Were Skeletons, Lizards Have Personalities, and other bands not named Houston We Have A Problem.
"Take a piano. Keys begin, keys end. You know there are 88 of them. Nobody can tell you any different. They are not infinite. You are infinite...
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