Porcupine from Minneapolis could be easily picked apart for obvious influences in forensic manner upon a quick listen to “The Way Down.” Like how its use of fuzzy guitar and dramatic but not melodramatic vocals cast over and syncing with an unconventional rhythm is reminiscent of Queens of the Stone Age. Though named as a reference to the great 1983 Echo & The Bunnymen album the way the song is arranged there is a kind of late 90s alternative rock groove with melodies in a slow roller coaster dynamic and sway like you’d hear in an early Swervedriver song. But what sets this song apart from being defined in those ways are the touches of bell chimes, the quiet pauses in the song like moments of clarity from the narrative of the song in which it sounds like someone trying to cope a life of fooling himself and trying to play the same games on others in order to be liked, even loved, or even just given some attention—the subtle details that give the song more musical dimensions beyond simply being a solid rocker. And it all sounds like a mantra of bravado that you say to yourself so you don’t have to feel how things really are because it’ll bring you down. And yet at the end of the song as so well accentuated in the music video by Paul Thompson there is a self-awareness in the songwriting as though written from the perspective of someone who tries a bevy of coping mechanisms for not dealing with a personal issue like addiction or a mental health issue and tries to divert other people noticing these things with actions and charming words but he can’t fool himself and suspects he isn’t fooling anyone else either. This epiphany is made more palatable through the exuberance of the song and because of that “The Way Down” doesn’t hit so much as a tragedy as a chance to start over without humiliation. Watch the video for “The Way Down” on YouTube and follow Porcupine at the links provided.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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