[07.02] It's East meets Midwest on the split EP 8 Teeth to Eat You, featuring Tokyo's Eastern Youth and Omaha's Cursive.

Known for their thrashing and frenzied, yet hooky, guitar riffs and slurred and sometimes grating vocals full of earnest sincerity, Cursive begins this split CD with four tracks that prove that the recent addition of cellist, Greta Cohn was a stroke of genius; indie emo punk accentuated by a classical music instrument? Trust me, it works. With the moody cello, tight rhythms, complex guitar, and throbbing bass lines to go along with Tim Kasher's powerful and evocative vocals and lyrics (mainly about bad relationships—how emo of them!) Cursive has distinguished themselves within a thriving Midwest scene that boasts the likes of Bright Eyes and the Faint (both Saddle Creek label mates of Cursive).

The dynamic prog-like tunes on 8 Teeth To Eat You range from frenetic to melodic to driving. The CD's opener, "Excerpts From Various Notes…" is a tale of love gone wrong told through an adolescent-like view, seething with emotional pain. It is a perfectly dramatic, frantic and tense beginning. "Am I Not Yours?" is a somber song about jealousy; and one where Kasher sounds, at times, like he is doing his best Robert Smith impersonation. "Escape Artist" is a poetic piece sung over an equally poetic collage of dissonance. And "May Flowers," yet another emotional track, is nearly pop-like—in an '80s post modern rock kind of way—until it explodes with the punctuated prose and heavy riffs that Cursive is known for, in the second half.

As a compliment to these tracks, Eastern Youth offers four melodic punk tracks all sung in Japanese. For those of you unfamiliar with them, Eastern Youth are Tokyo's answer to Fugazi; they are one of Japan's premiere indie punk bands. Since their inception in 1989, they have been pummeling audiences with loud angular guitar melodies and deep lyrics (for those of you who are bilingual). But on 8 Teeth to Eat You, it is obvious that one need not translate singer/songwriter Yoshino words to get a sense of their meaning; the pain and feeling of helplessness is felt through his expressive screams that relay his passion.÷ Aided by dissonant guitar that is held together by underlying melodies, Eastern Youth's contribution to the CD is emotional indie punk rock, with Japanese lyrics, at its best. Though they remind me, at times, of a Japanese version of Jimmy Eat World, Yoshino himself credits Fugazi, Jawbreaker, Stiff Little Fingers and Discharge for having a great impact on his music background. —Matthew