Album Review(s): Durry - 'This Movie Sucks' & Smut - 'Tomorrow Comes Crashing'

The Gist

Durry’s This Movie Sucks is this summer anthem for Millennials and Zoomers as they drink at local micro-breweries, discussing how to dismantle and destroy imperialism.

Smut’s Tomorrow Comes Crashing is neo-new wave rolling into garage-grunge and metal, creating catchy melodies and distinctive vocals challenged by guitars to develop an intense range of emotions on the album.

Intro

We are now beginning to understand what being in the post-COVID years means. Oligarchs building armies. ICE in Trump’s “freest country in the world.” Intense heat waves. And the DIY necessity for artists (“I’ve got the Power/You’ve got the money”). Musicians cannot depend on the music industry, unlike in the years when Warner Bros. Records spent the equivalent of millions on early Grateful Dead albums (Aoxomoxoa cost the equivalent of $1,543,394 in 2024 money). As an outcast DIY writer with many years of experience, I am in a position where I can offer a little outside assistance in the form of a constructive review. And for this one, I have done something I have never tried: covered two albums in one post.

Reasons

I am doing this because I have had a hectic couple of weeks, and now it is crunch time. (I wrote that last part to honor Durry and their lyrics. It might go well with “IDK I Just Work Here.”) One album, I’ve had weeks to think about, but for the other, I only had a couple of days. And I am just getting to the writing stage. However, this isn’t the only reason.

On Instagram, I follow @phishonphilm. Today, they posted a seven-page post titled, “This band has 300k followers and has only existed for two weeks. They’re also AI.” On page three, they shared the picture Spotify uses and the band’s name, The Velvet Sundown. Since seeing the post, I have done a little more research that has continually led me to discussions on Reddit and comments about other AI bands flooding the music platform, which is just another way to steal from the real artists.

Reading the press packets for both Durry’s This Movie Sucks and Smut’s Tomorrow Comes Crashing, I noticed that both bands are described as DIY. Austin Durry said of the brother and sister band, “We’re still trying to maintain the whole DIY nature of the band while also keeping the quality as high as we can.” The Smut bio states that they have “always been DIY. Because they love it. Because they have to do it—there’s no other option.” Notice the phrase, “Because they have to do it.” Although it isn’t something new—In our current political climate (well, since the eighties), financial cuts to the arts have increasingly taken opportunities away from many musicians (and writers), forcing them to stretch beyond their creative abilities—the exponential separation between the working class and the oligarchy has shaped a situation where DIY bands must build or find communities that will support their efforts. While finances are a significant concern for building their careers, music platforms like Spotify and Apple Music gave lesser-known bands virtual venues to be discovered by fans. However, the infiltration of AI-created bands, crowding that space, gives authentic artists less visibility, making the industry that much harder to navigate.

While Durry and Smut may never cross paths on tour or in genre and style, Alt Revue and I are connective parts within their support communities, sharing my thoughts to share their music. I am an offshoot of bands’ press releases, creating another orbit, a larger realm, where I have the opportunity to help elevate their careers while also spreading my and Alt Revue’s brand. Within an empathetic community. Outside the Oligarchy world.

To the Music (Sorry for that Rant)

Durry

Durry is a Millennial and a Gen Zer coming together through their music to sarcastically mock a reality that has created different but comparably similar existential angsts. When I saw a picture of them, I thought, Taryn kinda looks like my chill boss who went to college in Burlington, VT (Vermont. Whoop Whoop). My editor said of Austin Durry, “Dude is the chilliest motherfucker ever.” So, I was not so surprised when I listened to This Movie Sucks.

The opening guitar in the first five seconds of “Bully” was what I had hoped for. It was loud, aggressive, punk/post-punk sounding. I imagined hearing a snarl right before the drums kicked in. But not a truly angry snarl. Just one you would have expected if you were watching the band perform the song live. While it wasn’t there, the drums come in, and it’s a tempo I love. Then, “Greetings, people of the internet, it’s your friend, from the real world.” Okay, yes. That’s the voice I expected.

(Every time I write something about the guitar, I picture my wife saying, with sarcasm and a smirk, “You don’t like the guitar.” Okay, fair enough. Maybe I am drawn to it more than I will admit.)

The first time I listened to “Monopoly Money,” I followed the drums for too long. They weren’t special, but I imagined watching their (Dane Hoppe in concert) face distort into weird positions. “This Movie Sucks” starts a little less intense, but it becomes the first time the idea of rock anthem popped into my head. “Porcupine,” full of clever lyrics, further pushes the idea. By the time they get to “More Dumb,” I am standing shoulder to shoulder at a fairly large microbrewery, swaying and singing along with the rest of the audience, while our expensive, heavy, dark beer sloshes out of our glasses. “Start a Band” is my summer concert anthem.

“Polaroid” isn’t necessarily a downer song (“last year wasn’t all that bad”), but it got me thinking that the only time people really look at Polaroids anymore is when someone passes away. Ouch. Thankfully, “IDK I Just Work Here” brings back some of their cathartic humor. However, then there’s “Good Grief” and “The Long Goodbye.”

Although Durry explores heavier themes on the backside of the album, the music still brings energy to help them power through the emotions. Maybe that is part of their reasoning; discuss heavy issues without weighing down the listener. (Disclaimer: “The Long Goodbye” is a good break before finishing with their standard energy.)

Final Thought: This Movie Sucks is a good anthem album. The songs vary, but not so significantly that you can’t remember who you are listening to. If you give it a chance, you’ll see it get more and more playtime.

Favorite Songs: “Bully,” “Start A Band,” and “The Long Goodbye”

4.5 out of 5 (It is a great summer album)

Smut

Metal-inspired, garage-grunge at times, and a little new wave with elements of punk reminiscent of and with the Heart of Blondie, this band moved from the Nati to the Go, and I love the idea that they were self-aware enough to know they needed a change of environment to evolve. I believe it shows maturity—unpopular opinion: Lebron James had to leave Cleveland to grow as a basketball player—and the range of rock that they show on Tomorrow Comes Crashing kept me interested the entire album.

My love of pure punk allows wriggle room for clean and perfect sound when listening to music. Not unintentional noise, but loud distortions that sound like many micro-collisions. After all, the album is called Tomorrow Comes Crashing. Think of it like this: clashing sounds collide in time as Tay Roebuck screams over the madness so she can be heard. Or, more poetically, Roebuck’s powerful voice splits the cacophony surrounding her to rise above and be heard. My favorite example is in “Syd Sweeney,” starting at the three-minute and thirty-second mark. Oh, my fucking god. I love it, and it makes me excited to see Skating Polly when they come to Philly. The point being that it is intentional, which they prove by their cleaner sounds in songs like “Waste Me” and “Ghosts (Cataclysm, Cover Me).”

For everyone who needs a little more, “Dead Air” makes me think of the movie, Freaky Friday. Pink Slip, Anna Coleman’s (Lindsay Lohan) band, wishes they could play a song like this. Imagine Maddie (Christina Vidal) screaming like Roebuck before the guitar solo; it might not have come off as well in a Disney movie, but the solo would have worked.

Although you’ll see it written in my favorite songs section, I have to point out that “Touch & Go” was the song I connected with the most. Roebuck states that it “is a broken fantasy that was pretty directly inspired by ‘Time to Pretend’ by MGMT. The pursuit of success and the daydreams we have of ‘making it’ are pretty easily shattered once you put that fantasy in the modern world.” It all goes back to the fact that bands have to work harder to make it now than even twenty years ago. Roebuck continues by saying, “the song ends with the realization that the best part of music will always be the community you build with it.” You build with it. DIY. And the community.

Final Thought: My musical tastes surprise a lot of people. Friends sometimes make music suggestions that I am lukewarm on, but other times, I am surprised by an out-of-nowhere connection. The latter happened with Smut.

Favorite Songs: “Syd Sweeney,” “Dead Air,” and “Touch & Go”

4.5 out of 5 (I hope they always seek growth as a band)

Final Thought Overall: I feel fortunate to be part of a larger, working-class music community. As I have said over the years, I am not a musician because I love being a fan.