Seam's indie-rock sound seems like no other

My friend Andy who attends the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, mentions that among other unpleasant aspects of his school, perhaps the most heinous is their dearth of quality rock music performances. At the time I wanted to say, "That's one more thing Oberlin has over UI." Unfortunately, Andy was already sounding a little unhappy, and I had been lording my positive college experience over him for a while. But something else made me hold back from telling Andy how much better life was here. Sure, people talk about the time De La Soul came to town (and played poorly at Hales' Gym), but I didn't know about anything that happened recently. Then came Branford Marsalis, and Grigor Sokolov, and this Friday night, Versus, a band from New York, opens for the Oberlin alum-lead band Seam, which hails from Chicago. They are being brought here by the Asian Pacific Alliance, which has its bi-annual conference this weekend.

This is one of the few shows I heard about through word of mouth more than a week in advance. From what I saw, more people were enthusiastic about these two performances than for Marsalis: That might not mean that more people will want to come to this show than Marsalis's, it's just that there seem to be more hardcore followers of Seam and Versus than for the former "Tonight Show" performer.

Is the student-generated hype justified? It at least suggests that there might be more going for the show than an Oberlin graduate. I did a cursory listen-through of both bands' latest albums, which are Dead Leaves by Versus, and Seam's Are You Driving Me Crazy? They are both high-quality bands, and, in a feat of journalist/art-critic integrity, I will attempt to review both without comparing their music to other performers. Versus is on the independent Teen Beat label, home to such high powered "indie" groups as Tuscadero, who performed here last year, and Air Miami, which did not. They could easily be generalized as indie-rock, and rightly so - there is the morose singing and languid guitar many associate with the genre. But they're a fun sound no matter what you like, with a coordination between the instruments that suggests a lot of practice time together, despite what their posters say about constant conflict and high turnover among the members. The guitars are prominent, but not in an obnoxious way, and the singing quality is good.

But it's only fair that Versus is opening for Seam, because the latter is definitely the stronger of the two groups. Where Versus is a little bit different from the norm, Seam is very distinct from what's mainstream. They started out on the indie-rock label Homestead and are now on the very reputable Touch and Go label, which has featured such artists as the Smashing Pumpkins. The band somehow makes the guitars blend with each other, the bass and drums, and then takes the singing with it: everything is in the background at the same time. At this point in the article I would do anything for an analogy, e.g. "Seam sounds like a cross between X and Y," or "if you're familiar with x's early, experimental work, then you'll understand Seam a little better." Nevertheless, I promised myself not to compare bands to each other for the duration of this article, and I'm going to stick with that promise.

Seam definitely shies away from the conventional grunge-rock amalgam; on their last album, they occasionally made their voices computer-altered, among other things. Don't get me wrong, they're no X; Seam fools around enough to be different in a refreshing way, but not so much that they offend the casual ear. As I see it, if a big-time producer fancied making them the next big thing, the transition would need nothing more than a bad haircut, a cover of Rolling Stone, and an appearance at Lollapalooza - endless air-play on stations like Buzzard Radio would soon follow. On the other hand, Versus would have to get a little polished before going through the Get-Famous-Quick machine.

And why did the APA bring them, you may be asking. This is why: two men from Seam, among them lead singer and Oberlin alum Soo Young Park, are Korean-American, and Richard and Ed Balyut from Versus are Filipino-American. You may still be thinking, Will this show be as good as X?, Or will it just be another Y? Only indie-rock fans can say for sure, but I got unsolicited reviews such as, "[Seam] was the best show I've ever been to," and "Versus? I love Versus!" They both have successful songs on the Asian-American compilation Year of the Dragon.

So what's the conclusion to this preview? It goes like this: Andy, when it comes to quality performers coming to campus, Oberlin beats UI. Versus and Seam are another two high-quality bands coming to the 'Sco, bringing a slightly-alternative but palatable sound to a student body that's used to the best.

They are what they 'seam':The APA hosts Obie-alum and his band.