‘Important People’ is hard to quit

By: Brendan Coticchia / Staff Writer

Posted on 02. Sep, 2010 in Magazine

Meeting of Important People

Quit Music

Authentik Artists

Rocks Like: a Yinzer version of The Strokes

Grade: A-

There’s an adage that when it comes to culture, Pittsburgh falls 10 years behind the rest of the country. It’s only fitting, then, that while the rest of indie rock has seemingly moved fully behind the lo-fi synthpop of chillwave, we’ve finally gotten our own indie-garage-power pop band with the local trio Meeting of Important People.

On its 10-track EP Quit Music, which was released to much local fanfare this past month, MOIP takes a slight departure from the sound it established on its self-titled 2009 debut — going from Vampire Weekend with some crunchy guitar riffs to a total reversal of those characteristics.

Opener “Training Song” and “They Love Me in the City” are the best examples of this transformation. Both rely on subdued guitar and the yearning vocals of frontman Josh Verbanets to set the tone before exploding into full-blown garage rock. The former track goes so far as to include one of those indie rock rarities: an extended, minute-long guitar solo that isn’t played by Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis or Built to Spill’s Doug Martsch.

While most of the songs on Quit Music embrace this end of the sonic spectrum, there are still remnants of MOIP’s old sound — “Leap-the-Dips,” for instance, sounds like it could have easily been a track on their full-length album.

The only weak spot on the EP comes with the second track, “Jesus Song,” where the amount of layered instrumentation ends up sounding more sloppy than creative.

By the time Quit Music closes out — just 30 minutes after it starts — it’s clear that MOIP won’t be winning any contests for sonic creativity, but the band proves without a doubt that its genre is one that can still be done right.

Tags: cd, indie rock, meeting of important people, pittsburgh, quit music