Style: alt rock
Label: self-released
Year: 2005
Home: Washington, D.C.
Members: Peter Seven ~ vocals/guitar/keyboard
Chris Hutchinson ~ bass/b. voice
Chris Koehler ~ drums/harmonica
Rob Zaremba ~ drums
I find it most exciting to review bands that are still around because if I like their release I can look forward to the next one or potentially having them on my podcast to interview. But, every so often there's a defunct band that I like & I feel tempted to put them in the history books. Further, these lost bands are interesting & oft forgotten pieces of the bigger music history. For a short time in Washington D.C. in 2005 IIT was a missing piece churning out interesting music. Frontman Peter Seven has since gone on to form the trio Harm Reduction while bassist Christ Hutchinson was famous for replacing Flea in the band What Is This that also featured original Red Hot Chili Peppers Hillel Slovak & Jack Irons. But, as Seven has since said it was "all portent & no payoff" for ITT ... the oldest story of rock'n'roll. Lyrical dreamy ballads of longing highlight ITT's sound with underplayed melodies behind it all. Such as in "Sunset Strip", which except for some catchy wah wah guitar is clearly alt rock & not the expected L.A. Sunset Strip glam rock, has the longing: "I've never been to the Sunset Strip, but I hear it's pretty cool ... I wanna be seen on the Sunset Strip ... you know in my dreams I got so close." This is music for daydreaming & wishing. I can picture 18 year old girls with big dreams swooning at Peter Seven's gentle boy next door crooning. "Slow Motion" has layers of sound that move like gentle ocean waves with the distortion not drowning out the vocals. If "Slow Motion" is their ocean waves then they took to the sky with "Paper Airplane" which is their hardest song, though darker would be a better word than hard as it still keeps to the ITT slow pace that will appeal to a wide audience. While Peter Seven turns in near shouting lyrics behind a sheen of echoes that when he cries out "this wasn't supposed to happen" feels it as much as says it. Which is the key to IIT. Their music matches the feeling they want to portray. This isn't just slashing guitars or riffs. I'm reminded of Live in the sense that the songs are mini-portraits & their music is essentially about creating a mood not about playing chord changes that could be any number of bland songs. The collection ends with a near coda with "The Washington Post" which is a largely a vocal/acoustic guitar song with a soft layer of keyboards in the background with unexpected marching band drum coming in to end the song against some crushing electric guitars for the last two of five minutes, in a cutting diatribe against the media. ITT may no longer exist in time & they might be far more alt rock oriented then I usually review. But, they make the softer side of rock far more attractive for those of us that usually don't slow things down this much.
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