Album Title: “Rebuilding Year”
Release Date: September 2011
Label: No Idea Records

Pat – Drums
Rachel – Guitar, Vocals
Al – Bass
Jeff – Guitar, Vocals

Foundation to floorboard, what is bent will eventually break and that which is not maintained with diligence will crumble with time and abuse. The struggle to survive and ultimately prosper on one’s own terms can, and hopefully will, consume each and every one of us in time. It is this ideological battle that takes center stage over the course of Rebuilding Year, Bridge And Tunnel’s second full-length, following in the wake of 2008’s East / West, a compelling debut that garnered considerable praise for it’s innovative musicianship and poignant social commentary. Three years later, they’ve grown individually and together, avoiding the pitfalls of late-twenties cynicism that beset many of their ilk while bolstering their collective rage in the face of three more years trapped beneath the self-concious weight of contemporary American Life. From a street-level view, Bridge And Tunnel recount the unforgiving discrepancies of city life, where the stretch between inspiration and anxiety is but a workday away. Theirs is not a voice of self-pity or lament though, but a rallying call to a generation numbed by the overarching acceptance of complacency and convenience. Looking us squarely in the eye, Rebuilding Year stands as a challenge to the underlying punk ideal, that each of us holds within our heart the promise and potential to shape a new world from the ruins of our own.

These standards are mirrored in their approach to the music, as Rebuilding Year contains within ten masterfully-executed works of refined technical aggression and sweeping beauty, which flow seamlessly together as the tone of the album shifts and sways. Sonically anchored by a guitar-driven melodicism reminiscent of later-era Small Brown Bike, Bridge And Tunnel harness the explosive, angular technique employed by luminaries like Fugazi and Cursive to convey a cutting sense of immediacy and intensity. Bookended by soaring atmospheric compositions, the roots of the album lie in a commanding mastery of complex rhythm and a precisiorange of emotionally- laden tones as somber harmonies that harken back to Deep Elm’s heyday flip on a fill to a wrenching howl that echoes the desperation and defiance they’ve put to paper.

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