Among Giants

“Modest” may be a strange way to describe a band’s members and music, particularly one that falls neatly beneath punk-rock’s noisy umbrella. Nonetheless, almost everything about Orlando, FL’s Among Giants fits this designation. The band began as singer and guitarist Greg Hughes’s modest solo endeavor after he moved to Florida halfway through high school. Though he wrote songs continuously, out of necessity, it took him until his first year in college to gather enough courage to perform in front of an audience. In two years, though, Among Giants grew into an impassioned solo project before expanding into a crunchier punk-rock three-piece—the latter following the addition Zach Anderson, who offered his services as a drummer after seeing Hughes perform solo. After self-releasing a full-length and appearing on a couple of singles and splits, Among Giants recorded Back and Forth. But even this four-song EP, released by Jetsam-Flotsam in the spring of 2014, is modest in its simplicity. “Hardwood Floors”, for example, is built around four brooding chords that dip up and down dramatically and rumble as they rage. Hughes’s lyrics seem desperate, dependent on love, as he sings, “I don’t have the strength to wake up feeling all alone / I don’t have the heart to watch you as you go / And what is the world without you, I don’t know / anything without you,” but, beneath the surface, there’s exhaustion, tension, an unsung story. The rest of the record’s tracks—including ominous opener “Cats & Ferrets”; the bouncy “Art School”; and “The World is Not My Friend”, a riled closing cut—exhibit a similar and explosive simplicity, one that possesses depth and power. Of course, modesty doesn’t merely describe Among Giants; it’s their secret weapon. There’s no pretension in their story or in their simple desire to write and perform music from the heart, and it’s this mission that allows them to express the honesty that packs such an enormous and memorable punch. But Back and Forth not only epitomizes this power of modesty; it also captures a young band with the ability and audacity to wield it. - Dane Erbach Find the thing you love in life, and give it everything.