by Elliott Myhre (@edmyhre)
When he’s not rocking in the alt-country band Friendship, or reporting on the complex world of Philly Cheesesteaks, Peter Gill is the primary songwriting force of the four piece power-pop rock unit 2nd Grade. If you’re unfamiliar, here’s some visual association: a cold glass of OJ in the morning, the perfect spring day on your bike, making the game winning point on the away game, getting your heart broken in fourth period, going to Sport Cuts and leaving with a bowl cut. Joined by Catherine Dwyer and Jack Washburn, they march the warm and triumphant sound of 60’s pop rock into the 21st century. On their newest expedition, the band seemingly takes “California Girls” by The Beach Boys and stretches it across an entire record length, investigating the unending world of Girls and Boys.
If you’ve managed to find the band, it means you’ve no doubt accidentally stumbled upon elementary school math sheets or back-to-school sales for Bluey backpacks on the internet in pursuit of hearing their music. The humor that can be found in this is a huge part of understanding the mythology behind 2nd Grade. They craft magnetic firing-on-all-cylinders pop rock that (most of the time) is rocking at full speed. With explosive drum fills and fighter jet speed guitar riffs, the singing is often at a rapid fire, challenging the amount of words you can fit into a couple of seconds. To say that 2nd Grade has a vintage sound would be a critical understatement; their songs come served with an American portion of hiss and analog recording style. Their sound is baked, then baked again until you can practically feel the heat radiating off the tubes. Gill and Dwyer’s vocals are drenched in retro-styled reverbs and delays all over the record, further informing you that you are no longer on planet Earth in the 21st century.
On Girls and Boys, 2nd Grade analyzes the fragility of youth in all of its avenues. From daydreamy love songs like the fawning “White Album Girls” to the naive adoration on “Slingerland Girls” where Gill sings dazingly: ‘I follow your circular logic wherever it goes’. Despite the cheery sound found across most of the record, there are moments within where insecurity peeks through the often coy, fun lyrics like “Anywhere Girls” where Dwyer blitzes ‘I’ve been living on my own advice for too long, I could use some outside help / Went and had my day then cried on my resume, now I know how Jesse James felt’. The album is also not without its healthy dose of angst like in the confrontational “Radio Boys” with the aggressive line ‘get off of my wavelength, before I shut you down’. 2nd Grade examines the complex stir of tumultuous loves, confusion, and frustration that all come with our youth. With a humorous and loving perspective, the album culminates the entire scope of girlhood and boyhood in a painfully honest, yet charmingly tender memory.
By their fourth record it feels easy to say that 2nd Grade has completely mastered the art of pop songwriting. If writing hooks were a muscle, they’d be the quadriceps on Orin Incandenza. Just as you fall in love with one song, chances are you’re only a minute away from the next hit. This is nothing new if you’re familiar with their earlier songs such as “As Long As We Can Talk About It,” “Uncontrollably Cool,” or the tenderest, “My Bike”. What’s different this time is that there’s not even a split second where the hit energy is absent. Even on the simplest track, “Motormall Girls,” every pluck of the guitar and word that escapes from Gill’s stripped back vocal feels like the most important thing you’ve heard all day.
One of the strongest hooks on the record appears on the synth-submerged “Glacial Boys” where, in company with a charming mandolin line, Gill touts: ‘And the way I feel / Has mass appeal oh yeah’ along with its triumphant lead guitar line following shortly after. Every moment feels scientifically designed in a lab to be as memorable and ear-wormy as possible. The ending track “Crash Test Boys” even boasts their hitmaking abilities as both Gill and Dwyer sing their most memorable hooks and moments all overlapping like a greatest hit record that’s been squashed together.
2nd Grade makes it look as simple as just picking up the instruments. Of course, if you’ve ever tried to write a song, you know it isn’t. On Girls and Boys they investigate every corner of what a song about girls and boys can be. In their pursuit, they’ve created a record that is slammed to the brim with classics, superseding itself at each new turn.