In our continuing coverage of Topshelf Records tearing things up, we bring you Baltimore, MD boys Diamond Youth who present a listen and look at their new single “MDIC” (Maryland Ice Cream). With word of their Shake EP coming this February from the aforementioned imprint, we bring you a brief but lasting treat that rips colder than a soft serve stand. Combining images from a recent Webster Hall performance with a variety of inter-web available JPEGs using Power Point, they kick out a condensed rebel rouser that clocks in under the 50 second mark. We've heard reputable sources expound on the virtues and rock and roll ethics about the “two minute rule”, but these likely lads take it a step further into the exhibitions of constraint and precise concentration.
Cooler than a visit to your favorite Maryland ice cream shoppe, Diamond Youth speeds everything up in the name of efficiency and an infectious consistency. Flashing clip-art of fat and exploding baby heads, Mars Attacks! martians, bloodied faces ripped from film stills, cosmic dogs soaring around Saturn, a gal drinking from a red plastic gasoline container and more; things get wild while remaining safe within the parameters of not breaking the one minute barrier. Within this time economy, the Diamonds pack as much energy and shredding riffs quicker than you can recite the minimalist (but effective) chorus of, “love the taste” that lingers long on the tongue ad infinitum.
Diamond Youth's Sam Trapkin talked to us for a few minutes about their forthcoming Shake EP, the art of the under-one-minute-song, and a thing or two about this Maryland ice cream business.
Tell us about what it is you love about the taste of Maryland ice cream.
When you're kicking it you're licking it, so you better be gripping it.
What is it about the art of the under-one-minute song that is lesser appreciated in these times, that you all obviously get?
The thing is…who really cares. Like, if your kid is born without thumbs, you're not going to force them to be a basketball player. You can't make them be someone they're not. Not every song is meant to be three minutes long.
Give us everything we need to know about the Shake EP, and any blood, guts and recording stories you all care to share.
You should know that it's coming out February 4 on Topshelf Records. We really wanted to do a 7″ with them because they're sick to work with and knew it would be fun. There can be a lot of dumb shit that goes along with putting out a record, like outside pressure to have it all happen a certain way. But really we just wanted to do our own thing and put it out when we felt like it. So that's what Shake is all about.
One of the weirdest things about recording this record was that the studio is in the same building as the first place Justin and I ever worked. The control room, where we spent most of our time, used to be my boss's office. It's weird to think that when I sat in that same room seven years ago, I had no idea this band would even exist, let alone that I'd be sitting in that same room recording guitar.
The world is a crazy place. But then you have to remember that we're all just organisms that evolved from bacteria floating on a rock in space and nothing really matters.
Shake will be available February 4 from Topshelf Records.
